Selective hydrogenation of biomass 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2, 5-dimethylfuran (DMF) which is a suitable candidate for liquid fuel has been widely concerned. Developing efficient and economic catalysts for the hydrogenation of HMF to DMF under mild conditions is a crucial issue. Here series monometallic Cu-based catalysts were synthesized from controlled thermolysis of Cu-BTC metal-organic frameworks and characterized by TG, N 2 adsorption-desorption, XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM, and H 2 -TPR techniques. The CuO x @C catalyst with Cu 2 O/Cu composites enwrapped in porous carbon matrix derived from Cu-BTC by two steps thermolysis treatment shows high hydrogenation activity with 100% conversion of HMF and 92% selectivity of DMF at 180°C under 3 MPa H 2 pressure. The oxidation treatment following up the thermolysis of Cu-BTC under inert atmosphere increases the content of Cu + in the catalyst and improves the activity of the catalyst, which is mainly owe to the synergetic effect between Cu + and Cu 0 .

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The efficient catalysis of the hydrogenation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) over non noble-metal catalysts has received great attention in recent years. However, the reaction usually requires harsh conditions, such as high reaction temperature and excessively long reaction time, which limits the application of the non noble-metal catalysts. In this work, a bimetallic Co x -Cu@C catalyst was prepared via the pyrolysis of MOFs, and an 85% DMF yield was achieved under a reaction temperature and time of 160 °C and 3 h, respectively. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) mapping, and other characterization techniques showed that the synthesis method in this paper realized the in situ loading of cobalt into the copper catalyst. The reaction mechanism studies revealed that the cobalt doping effectively enhanced the hydrogenation activity of the copper-based catalyst on the C–O bond at a low temperature. Moreover, the bimetallic Co x -Cu@C catalyst exhibited superior reusability without any loss in the activity when subjected to five testing rounds.