Conversion of Levulinic Acid and its Esters to 1,5‐dimethyl‐2‐Pyrrolidone over a Nonnoble Metallic Ni@CeOx Catalyst

Abstract 1,5‐dimethyl‐2‐pyrrolidone (MNMP), as a highly efficient green solvent, can be obtained from biomass‐derived levulinic acid and its esters with 100 % conversion and 96.8 % yield over a 10 % Ni@CeOx catalyst at 140 °C, 2 MPa H 2 , 8 h, and with water as the solvent. Structure‐property correlation investigations were performed with diverse characterization methods, including BET, XRD, XPS, TEM, HAADF‐STEM, H 2 ‐TPR, NH 3 ‐TPD, CO 2 ‐TPD and FT‐IR, and the results revealed that the excellent catalytic performance of the 10 % Ni@CeOx catalyst was mainly resulted from the strong interaction between Ni and CeOx, which formed more catalytic active sites and contributed to higher reductive amination efficiency. Besides, the 10 % Ni@CeOx catalyst had a chemisorption effect on LA. This was also the key to the excellent catalytic activity of the 10 % Ni@CeOx catalyst. The 10 % Ni@CeOx catalyst exhibited great stability throughout 6 reaction runs and excellent catalytic efficiency in the kilogram scale preparation of MNMP. This work provides a low‐cost, efficient, and environmentally friendly heterogeneous catalytic system for the production of MNMP.