From both fundamental and practical perspectives, the production of chemicals from biomass re-sources using high-efficiency non-precious metal catalysts is important. However, many processes require addition of stoic...From both fundamental and practical perspectives, the production of chemicals from biomass re-sources using high-efficiency non-precious metal catalysts is important. However, many processes require addition of stoichiometric or excess quantities of base, which leads to high energy consump-tion, leaching problems, and side reactions. In this study, we investigated the high-efficiency oxida-tive esterification of furfural to methylfuroate by molecular oxygen with a Co-N-C/MgO catalyst. The catalyst was prepared by direct pyrolysis of a cobalt（Ⅱ） phenanthroline complex on MgO at 800℃ under N2 atmosphere. From furfural, 93.0% conversion and 98.5% selectivity toward methylfuroate were achieved under 0.5 MPa O2 with reaction at 100 ℃ for 12 h without a basic additive. The con-version and selectivity were much higher than those obtained with cobalt catalysts produced by pyrolysis of a cobalt（Ⅱ） phenanthroline complex on activated carbon or typical basic supports, in-cluding NaX, NaY, and CaO. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission elec-tron microscopy, and experimental results revealed that the high efficiency of Co-N-C/MgO for pro-duction of methylfuroate was closely related to the cobalt-nitrogen-doped carbon species and its catalytic ability in hydrogen abstraction. In contrast, Co-N-C（HCl） that synthesized by removing MgO with HCl from Co-N-C/MgO, as the catalyst produced mainly an acetal as a condensation prod-uct, and chloride ions had a negative effect on the oxidative esterification. Although the catalytic performance of the cobalt-nitrogen-doped carbon species was greatly affected by HCl treatment, it could be recovered to a great extent by addition of MgO. Moreover, changes in the oxygen pressure hardly affected the oxidative esterification of furfural with Co-N-C/MgO. This study not only pro-vides an effective approach to prepare methylfuroate, but also for designing high-performance non-precious metal catalysts for the oxidative esterification of biomass-derived compounds.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(21233008,21643013,21690084)the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(XDB17020300)the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS(2013121)~~
文摘From both fundamental and practical perspectives, the production of chemicals from biomass re-sources using high-efficiency non-precious metal catalysts is important. However, many processes require addition of stoichiometric or excess quantities of base, which leads to high energy consump-tion, leaching problems, and side reactions. In this study, we investigated the high-efficiency oxida-tive esterification of furfural to methylfuroate by molecular oxygen with a Co-N-C/MgO catalyst. The catalyst was prepared by direct pyrolysis of a cobalt（Ⅱ） phenanthroline complex on MgO at 800℃ under N2 atmosphere. From furfural, 93.0% conversion and 98.5% selectivity toward methylfuroate were achieved under 0.5 MPa O2 with reaction at 100 ℃ for 12 h without a basic additive. The con-version and selectivity were much higher than those obtained with cobalt catalysts produced by pyrolysis of a cobalt（Ⅱ） phenanthroline complex on activated carbon or typical basic supports, in-cluding NaX, NaY, and CaO. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission elec-tron microscopy, and experimental results revealed that the high efficiency of Co-N-C/MgO for pro-duction of methylfuroate was closely related to the cobalt-nitrogen-doped carbon species and its catalytic ability in hydrogen abstraction. In contrast, Co-N-C（HCl） that synthesized by removing MgO with HCl from Co-N-C/MgO, as the catalyst produced mainly an acetal as a condensation prod-uct, and chloride ions had a negative effect on the oxidative esterification. Although the catalytic performance of the cobalt-nitrogen-doped carbon species was greatly affected by HCl treatment, it could be recovered to a great extent by addition of MgO. Moreover, changes in the oxygen pressure hardly affected the oxidative esterification of furfural with Co-N-C/MgO. This study not only pro-vides an effective approach to prepare methylfuroate, but also for designing high-performance non-precious metal catalysts for the oxidative esterification of biomass-derived compounds.
