Highly selective hydrogenative ring-rearrangement of furfural to cyclopentanone over a bifunctional Ni3P/γ-Al2O3 catalyst

A bifunctional Ni3P/γ-Al2O3 catalyst with both metal site and Lewis acid site was prepared by an electroless plating method, and applied in hydrogenative ring-rearrangement of furfural to cyclopentanone. The obtained catalyst was characterized by XRD, XPS, XAS, N2 adsorption-desorption, ICP, TEM, CO chemisorption, NH3-TPD and Py-FTIR. The ultrafine Ni3P nanoparticles (∼3.8 nm) were highly dispersed in the catalyst. The exclusive Lewis acidity of Ni3P/γ-Al2O3 was beneficial for the aqueous-phase hydrogenative ring-rearrangement. The effects of DP time, reaction parameters (temperature, H2 pressure, solvent composition, and reaction time) on the catalytic performance were investigated. The yield of cyclopentanone was 74.6% at furfural conversion of 99.9% at 180 °C in 1 h over Ni3P/γ-Al2O3 catalyst using pure water as the solvent. Moreover, the kinetics of hydrogenative ring-rearrangement of furfural catalyzed by Ni3P/γ-Al2O3 was investigated.