A novel synthesis of zirconium tannate with high stability: new insight into the structure of the catalyst for hydrogenation

• Published in: Applied catalysis. A, General Vol. 602; p. 117666
• Main Authors: Xu, Guangzhi, Liu, Chen, Hu, Aiyun, Wang, Shan, Wang, Haijun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 25.07.2020; Elsevier Science SA
• Subjects: Carbon; Catalysts; Catalytic transfer hydrogenation; Energy conversion efficiency; Furfural; Furfuryl alcohol; Hydrogenation; Physical properties; Reaction mechanism; Reaction mechanisms; Resource utilization; Tannic acid; Zirconium; Tannic acid; Reaction mechanism; Furfural; Furfuryl alcohol; Catalytic transfer hydrogenation
• ISSN: 0926-860X; 1873-3875
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apcata.2020.117666

[Display omitted] •`We first synthesized a novel zirconium tannate (Zr-TA) catalyst by the reaction of tannic acid and ZrCl4 for the CTH reaction of FF to FA with the isopropanol.•Homogeneous zirconium tannate can be synthesized from heterogeneous tannic acid, which is conducive to the recovery and reuse of the catalyst.•The activity of the Zr-TA catalyst is hardly reduced after reused eight times. With the increasing demand for fossil energy and carbon resources, improving the efficiency of fossil resource utilization and exploring new ways of carbon resource utilization have become the key issues facing social development. Here, we successfully synthesized zirconium tannate(Zr-TA) from tannic acid(TA) and zirconium tetrachloride(ZrCl4) for catalytic transfer hydrogenation(CTH) of furfural(FF) to furfurfuryl alcohol(FA) with 100 % conversion of FF and 98.2 % yield of FA at 120 °C for 80 min. The physical properties of the catalysts and the optimum conditions for hydrogenation reaction were explored through different characterization techniques and experiments. In addition, the Zr-TA could be recycled eight times without significant loss of activity and possible reaction mechanism were proposed.