Rational engineering of Brønsted acid sites for product-specific and accelerated furfurylamine formation

Ru supported on modified H-ZSM-5 (Ru/DZ) with high dispersion of Ru and strong Brønsted acidic sites has been developed for the selective production of furfurylamine (FUA) via reductive amination of furfural (FUR) compared to its counterpart (Ru/HZ). The strong Brønsted acidic sites facilitate efficient protonation of the N-furfurylidenefurfurylamine (N-FFA) intermediate, which is responsible for the selective formation of FUA, as clearly demonstrated by in situ studies.