Synergistic catalytic hydrogenation of furfural to 1,2-pentanediol and 1,5-pentanediol with LDO derived from CuMgAl hydrotalcite

A series of layer double metal oxides (LDO) from CuMgAl hydrotalcite precursors were prepared by urea decomposition under different calcination temperatures in this work. Various characterizations including XRD, SEM, FTIR, XPS, H2-TPR, NH3-TPD and CO2-TPD were carried out to investigate the structural properties of the as-prepared samples. After calcination at certain temperatures, the resulted LDO presents the excellent catalytic property in the selective hydrogenolysis of furfural (FA) to 1,2-pentanediol (1,2-PeD) and 1,5-pentanediol (1,5-PeD). The Cu+/Cu2+ ratio and the acid-base amount from the calcination process play the key role in the catalytic performance towards this reaction. The optimal catalyst (CuMgAlO-S3) with the maximal Cu+/Cu2+ ratio and the acid-base amount exhibits the best catalytic performance towards hydrogenation of furfural to 1,2-pentanediol (selectivity 55.2 %.) and 1,5-pentanediol (selectivity 28.5 %) with more than 80 % of conversion rate, which indicated the selectivity of 1,2- and 1,5-PeDs counted on the synergistic effect of Cu+ and acid-base properties.