Synergistic effects of bimetallic CuNi–ZrO 2 catalysts in catalytic transfer hydrogenation of furfural

The electronic interaction between Cu and Ni facilitates the formation of more Cu 0 /Cu + active sites in the Cu 2 Ni 1 –ZrO 2 catalyst, which enables the catalyst achieve 88.9% FAL conversion with 93.6% FOL selectivity at 170 °C for 12 h in the CTH process.