Boron Modified Cu/Al2O3 Catalysts for the Selective Reductive Amination of Levulinic Acid to N‐Substituted Pyrrolidinones

Abstract The reductive amination of biomass‐derived levulinic acid (LA) to value‐added N‐substituted pyrrolidinones with amine and molecular hydrogen over heterogeneous catalyst represents an atom‐economical and scalable route. In this paper, a series of boron doped Cu/Al 2 O 3 catalysts via kneading and impregnation method are developed for the continuous reductive amination of LA. Compared with Cu/Al 2 O 3 , Cu 10 /AlB 3 O catalyst exhibits greatly improved catalytic performance for this reaction at low operation temperature. Structure‐property correlation investigations were performed with diverse characterization methods, and the results revealed that the excellent catalytic performance of boron doped Cu/Al 2 O 3 catalysts was mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of its well‐dispersed Cu nanoparticles, appropriate surface Cu electronic state and surface acidic sites nearby. Besides, Cu 10 /AlB 3 O shows great stability during the reaction over 200 h. This work provides a low‐cost, efficient and environmentally friendly heterogeneous catalytic system for the continuous production of N‐substituted pyrrolidinones.