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

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@hMgAl catalyst with Pt nanoparticles (NPs) confined in the layered double hydroxide derived hollow MgAl‐oxide nanospheres (hMgAl), which shows an enhanced catalytic performance in CTH of furfural (FFR) to furfuryl alcohol (FOL) compared to hMgAl without Pt NPs inside. It is found that the reaction rate over Pt@hMgAl (12.8 mmol gcat‐1 h‐1) is ~26 times higher than that over hMgAl (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 dehydrogenation of 2‐propanol. Moreover, the reaction rate over Pt@hMgAl can further increase to 21.8 mmol gcat‐1 h‐1 after introducing H2 into the reaction system, where the FOL selectivity is still higher than 99% due to 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, enhancing CTH efficiency for α,β‐unsaturated alcohols production.