Neste trabalho foi estudada a hidrogenação quimiosseletiva em fase líquida do furfural, empregando-se catalisadores baseados em Pt, Rh e Ni. Sistemas bimetálicos, contendo diferentes quantidades de estanho, foram obtidos por meio de reações de superfície controlada entre um catalisador monometálico e Sn(C 4 H 9 ) 4 . Quando foram utilizados catalisadores monometálicos, os resultados obtidos sugerem uma relação entre as propriedades do metal e da atividade e seletividade. Todos os sistemas permitiram a obtenção do álcool furfurílico com alta seletividade (99, 97 e 76% com catalisadores de Pt, Rh e Ni, respectivamente). A adição de estanho tem efeitos diferentes sobre os três sistemas, tanto em termos de conversão quanto na seletividade. Um resultado interessante foi obtido para os catalisadores baseados em Ni, para os quais a adição de estanho levou a um aumento significativo da seletividade do álcool furfurílico e, dependendo da razão Sn/Ni, também há um aumento na atividade catalítica do sistema.In this work, the liquid-phase chemoselective hydrogenation of furfural was studied, employing Pt, Rh and Ni-based catalysts. Bimetallic systems, containing different amounts of tin, were obtained by means of controlled surface reactions between a monometallic catalyst and Sn(C 4 H 9 ) 4 . The results obtained when monometallic catalysts were employed suggest a relationship between metal properties and the activity and selectivity obtained. All systems allowed obtaining furfuryl alcohol with high selectivity (99, 97 and 76% were achieved with Pt, Rh and Ni catalysts, respectively). The addition of tin has different effects on the three systems, both in terms of conversion and selectivity. An interesting result was obtained for the Ni-based catalysts, for which the addition of tin led to a significant increase in furfuryl alcohol selectivity and, depending on the Sn/Ni ratio, also to an increase in the catalytic activity of the system. Keywords: furfural, furfuryl alcohol, hydrogenation, bimetallic catalysts, PtSn
IntroductionThe hydrogenation of furfural is an important reaction in the chemical industry as it is the main way of obtaining furfuryl alcohol.1 This product is widely used in the production of resins, as an intermediate in the manufacture of lysine, vitamin C and lubricants, and to obtain tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol, among other applications. [2][3][4] Due to the large variety of products that can be obtained from the hydrogenation of furfural, this reaction represents a great challenge from the point of view of its chemoselectivity. As shown in Figure 1, in addition to the products coming from the hydrogenation of the C=O bond and/or the furan ring, there are numerous compounds derived from side reactions (hydrogenolysis of the C=O bond, decarbonylation, hydrogenation and ring opening, condensation reactions, etc.). 3,5 In chemoselective hydrogenation reactions using heterogeneous catalysts, the choice of the active metal is a key factor, since its influence on the resulting activity and/or selectivity is wel...