Developing an economic catalyst to upgrade furfural to alcohols (such as linear alcohol and cyclopentanol) is highly significant for fine chemical synthesis and biomass utilization. Here, a class of metal phosphate nanoparticles (such as CoP, Co 2 P, and Ni 2 P) with different metal compositions and topological structures is synthesized. The acidity and hydrogen activation ability were well adjusted according to the types. An 80.2% yield of 1,2,5-pentanetriol was reported for the first time via a hydrogenative ring-opening route over CoP, whereas Ni 2 P shows a high catalytic efficiency for cyclopentanol with a 62.8% yield via a hydrogenative ring-rearrangement route. Based on the catalytic performance of Pd/C and the result of attenuated total reflectance−infrared spectroscopy, the route difference is derived from the adsorption configuration of furfural on the catalyst. After loading on the insert support, the metal phosphate/support catalysts show high activity and stability during the recycling experiments. This work provides an effective strategy to regulate the reaction path through an adsorption mechanism and shows the precise synergistic effect of hydrogenation and acid catalysis.

Currently, low intimacy between hydrogenation sites and acidic sites causes unsatisfactory catalytic activity and selectivity for the synthesis of 2,5-hexanedione from C 6 furan aldehydes (5methylfurfural, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural). Herein, iodine(I) modification of Pd-supported catalysts (such as PdI/Al 2 O 3 and PdI/ SiO 2 ) was investigated to modulate the hydrogenation sites and acidic sites. Unlike Pd catalysts that produced 71.4 % yield of 2hydroxymethyl-5-methyl tetrahydrofuran via an overhydrogenation route of 5-methylfurfural, PdI catalysts showed a high efficiency for 2,5-hexanedione with 93.7 % yield by a hydro-genative ring-opening route. More importantly, the selective synthesis of 2,5-hexanedione from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural with a high yield of 50.2 % by the hydrogenolysis and subsequent ring-opening route was reported for the first time. I-modified Pd nanoparticles produced in-situ hydrogen spillover, which promoted the selective C=O hydrogenation and ring-opening steps by regulating the adsorption configuration of the reactants and the transformation of Lewis to Brønsted acidity, respectively.

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