xNi–yCu–ZrO2 catalysts for the hydrogenation of levulinic acid to gamma valorlactone

Jones, Daniel, Iqbal, Sarwat, Thomas, Liam, Ishikawa, Satoshi, Reece, Christian, Miedziak, Peter, Morgan, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6571-5731, Bartley, Jonathan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4640-541X, Willock, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8893-1090, Ueda, Wataru and Hutchings, Graham ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8885-1560 2018. xNi–yCu–ZrO2 catalysts for the hydrogenation of levulinic acid to gamma valorlactone. Catalysis, Structure & Reactivity 4 (1) , pp. 12-23. 10.1080/2055074X.2018.1433598

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Abstract

We have investigated xNi–yCu–ZrO2 catalysts for the selective synthesis of γ-valerolactone from levulinic acid (LA). A series of xNi–yCu–ZrO2 catalysts with a consistent metal loading of 50% but varying Ni and Cu composition were prepared by an oxalate gel precipitation method and tested for LA hydrogenation. Ni-rich catalysts showed higher catalytic activity compared with Cu-rich formulations with a 45Ni–5Cu–ZrO2 composition yielding 76% γ-valerolactone after a reaction time of 30 min at 200 °C. Characterisation of the materials by XRD, surface area measurements and TPR allow us to attribute the differences in performance seen for different compositions to particle size and nanoparticle dispersion effects. DFT calculations also showed that a shift of d-band centre to higher energies with the mole fraction of Ni in Cu–Ni alloys would be expected to lead to improved hydrogen dissociation in Ni-rich catalysts and so aid hydrogenation activity

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Chemistry Advanced Research Computing @ Cardiff (ARCCA) Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI)
ISSN:	2055-074X
Funders:	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/L000202]; FP7 Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies [604319]
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	27 March 2018
Date of Acceptance:	21 January 2018
Last Modified:	05 Jan 2024 06:57
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/110252

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