It is challenging to synthesize a stable ultrafine Pd catalyst with high selectivity and activity at low temperatures toward hydrogenation of furfural (FF). We report an approach of applying C�N and S−O entities in a highly stable La metal− organic framework (La-MOF) (LaQS) as the platform support that confines Pd nanoparticles (NPs) through coordination, resulting in a stable Pd/LaQS catalytic system. The catalytic conversion of FF into tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFA) using this catalyst can be done as simply as one-step hydrogenation at room temperature, with a high selectivity of >99% maintained even at 120 °C. The outstanding catalytic activity and selectivity are mainly attributed to the electronic effect of metal−support in Pd/ LaQS, which produces electron-rich Pd and enhanced Lewis-acid LaQS. Especially, this electronic effect can be facilely tuned by the Pd loading in Pd/LaQS. On the one hand, electron-rich ultrafine Pd promotes the activation of H 2 and improves the reaction activity. On the other hand, the acid-enhanced LaQS support not only promotes the activation of FF and improves its activity, but also the positive electricity of the LaQS support is conducive to the reactant adsorption and product desorption, thus improving the THFA selectivity. This work develops a stable LaQS support for the stabilization of ultrafine metal nanoparticles via the metal−support interaction for enhanced catalysis, which sheds light on the construction of efficient MOF-based catalysts for task-specific applications.

The development of high-content non-noble metal nanocatalysts is important for multiphase catalysis applications. However, it is a challenge to solve the agglomeration in the preparation of high-content metal catalysts. In this paper, a carbon-based catalyst (Co@CN-G-600) with 71.28 wt % cobalt metal content was prepared using a new strategy of gas-phase carbon coating assisted by glycerol. The core of this strategy is to maintain the spacing of metallic cobalt by continuous replenishment of dissociated ligands during pyrolysis over gas-phase glycerol. This approach is also applicable to other non-noble metals. When Co@CN-G-600 was further used as a catalyst for the selective hydrogenation of furfural (FF) to prepare furfuryl alcohol (FOL), the yield of FOL was >99.9% under mild conditions of 80 °C, compared to only 8.23% catalytic yield at up to 130 °C for Co@CN-600 without glycerol. The excellent catalytic performance mainly lies in the fact that the introduction of glycerol modulates the size effect, electronic effect, and acidic site intensity of the high-content Co catalyst, which promotes the activation of FF and hydrogen. Meanwhile, the optimized specific surface area and pore structure by glycerol improve the accessibility of high-density active sites and promote more efficient mass transfer. In addition, the introduction of glycerol produced a graphitic carbon layer encapsulation structure relative to Co@CN-600, which substantially improved the cycling stability of the catalyst. This study resolves the paradox of high content and high dispersion of non-noble metal catalysts in the synthesis process and provides a general pathway and example for the preparation of stable high-content metal catalysts.

A series of CoZn catalysts supported on N-doped porous carbon (CoxZny@NPC-T) with controlled Zn content prepared under different calcination temperature are studied for catalytic hydrogenation of biomass-based ethyl levulinate to...

FeCoZn@NPC‐600 catalyst was prepared by one‐step pyrolysis using FeCoZn‐ZIF as the precursor through multi‐metal homogeneous doping and self‐template conversion strategy, and it was used to catalyze the selective hydrogenation of furfural (FF) to furfuryl alcohol (FOL). The results showed that the FF conversion reached 100 % and the FOL selectivity was 97.34 %. Compared with FeCo@NPC‐600 and CoZn@NPC‐600, the FOL yield of FeCoZn@NPC‐600 was increased by 11.2 and 2.2 times, respectively. The excellent catalytic performance is mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of multiple metals in the catalyst. The doping of Fe and Zn enhanced the active Co(0) content and acid strength of FeCoZn@NPC‐600, which promoted the activation of H2 and FF. Meanwhile, The doping of Zn also optimizes the pore structure of the catalyst. The activity of FeCoZn@NPC‐600 catalyst did not significantly decrease after repeated use for five times, mainly because the encapsulation of graphite carbon layer led to good cycleability.