Selective hydrogenation of 2-hydroxymethyl-5-furfural to 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan over gold sub-nano clusters

We report a gold sub-nano cluster supported on Al2O3 catalyzed hydrogenation of 2-hydroxymethyl-5-furfural without furan ring hydrogenation and its opening reaction, which resulted in excellent conversion to 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan (>96% yield), Fig. 1(a).