Confining Pt nanoparticles in layered double hydroxide derived hollow mesoporous MgAl‐oxide nanospheres for boosting selective transfer hydrogenation

Abstract Catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) is a safe and effective strategy for producing unsaturated alcohols (UOLs) from biomass‐derived α , β ‐unsaturated aldehydes/ketones. Accordingly, the design of CTH catalysts that possess both extreme activity and superior selectivity is highly desirable. Herein, we develop a highly efficient Pt@ h MgAl catalyst with Pt nanoparticles (NPs) confined in the layered double hydroxide derived hollow MgAl‐oxide nanospheres ( h MgAl), which shows an enhanced catalytic performance in CTH of furfural (FFR) to furfuryl alcohol (FOL) compared to the h MgAl catalyst without Pt NPs inside. It is found that the reaction rate over the Pt@ h MgAl (12.8 mmol gcat −1 h −1 ) is ~26 times higher than that over the h MgAl (0.5 mmol gcat −1 h −1 ). The excellent catalytic performance of Pt@hMgAl originates from the synergy between Pt‐(Mg−O−Al) interfacial sites, where the acid‐base site of Mg−O−Al activates the C=O bond of FFR, while the nearby Pt site facilitates the dehydrogenation of 2‐propanol. Moreover, the reaction rate over the Pt@ h MgAl can further increase to 21.8 mmol gcat −1 h −1 after introducing H 2 into the reaction system, where the FOL selectivity is still higher than 99 % due to the synergy of Pt‐(Mg−O−Al) interfacial sites. This work provides a straightforward approach to construct a hollow‐structured catalyst with abundant metal/oxide interfaces, which could significantly enhance the CTH efficiency for α,β‐unsaturated alcohols production.