Linear Scaling Relationships for Furan Hydrodeoxygenation over Transition Metal and Bimetallic Surfaces

Abstract Brønsted‐Evans‐Polanyi (BEP) and transition‐state‐scaling (TSS) relationships have become valuable tools for the rational design of catalysts for complex reactions like hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of bio‐oil (containing heterocyclic and homocyclic molecules). In this work, BEP and TSS relationships are developed for all the elementary steps of furan activation (C and O hydrogenation and CHx−OHy scission, for both ring and open‐ring intermediates) to oxygenates, ring‐saturated compounds and deoxygenated products on the most stable facets of Ni, Co, Rh, Ru, Pt, Pd, Fe and Ir surfaces using Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. Furan ring opening barriers were found to be facile and strongly dependent on carbon and oxygen binding strength on the investigated surfaces. Our calculations suggest linear chain oxygenates form on Ir, Pt, Pd and Rh surfaces due to their low hydrogenation and high CHx−OHy scission barriers, while deoxygenated linear products are favoured on Fe and Ni surfaces due to their low CHx−OHy scission and moderate hydrogenation barriers. Bimetallic alloy catalysts were also screened for their potential HDO activity and PtFe catalysts were found to significantly lower the ring opening and deoxygenation barriers relative to the corresponding pure metals. The developed BEPs for monometallic surfaces can be extended to estimate the barriers on bimetallic surfaces for ring opening and ring hydrogenation reactions but fails to predict the barriers for open‐ring activation reactions due to the change in transition state binding sites on the bimetallic surface. The obtained BEP and TSS relationships can be used to develop microkinetic models for facilitating accelerated catalyst discovery for HDO.