Insights into the interfacial effects in Cu-Co/CeOx catalysts on hydrogenolysis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to biofuel 2,5-dimethylfuran

The interface site between metal and support possess unique electronic and morphological structure, providing distinct active centers for favorable reaction in catalytic conversion of biomass derivatives to valuable chemicals. In this study, a series of Cu-Co/CeOx catalysts were prepared for hydrogenolysis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) via reduction of the corresponding layered double hydroxide precursors. The characterizations indicated the formation of CoCe-Vö interface (Vö denotes oxygen vacancy) and the effect of hydrogen spillover from Cu species to CoCe-Vö interface. Furthermore, the experiments and theoretical calculations verified that CoCe-Vö interface could activate the CO bond. The optimized catalyst showed a DMF yield of > 90% at 180 °C and 1.5 MPa H2 with no deactivation in the cycling tests. This study reveals the interfacial effects of the nanocatalysts, including the oxygen vacancies and hydrogen spillover, on hydrogenolysis of HMF, which provided a simple and efficient approach for synthesis of high-performance non-noble metal nanocatalysts applied to the hydrogenolysis of various biomass derivatives.