Efficient and sustainable hydrogenation of levulinic-acid to gamma-valerolactone in aqueous solution over acid-resistant CePO₄/Co₂P catalysts

Abstract

Following an accelerated L–H process, efficient and sustainable hydrogenation of LA with 97% yield of GVL at TOF of 0.27–0.61 s−1 in water was achieved on low-cost and acid-resistant CePO4/Co2P composite.

A cobalt phosphide catalyst for the hydrogenation of nitriles

“…Although metal phosphides have recently emerged as new electro- and photo-catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction 33 – 37 and hydrotreatment catalysts in the petroleum industry, 38 – 41 their catalysis for organic synthesis remains largely unexplored despite their unique characteristics. 42 – 46 Therefore, nano-Co 2 P reported here can be categorized as a new class of catalyst for the hydrogenation of nitriles that is quite different from conventional catalysts of modified metal nanoparticles, sponge metals and metal complexes.…”

Recent Advances in Aqueous-Phase Catalytic Conversions of Biomass Platform Chemicals Over Heterogeneous Catalysts

“…Cerium also showed fair activity in the hydrogenation reaction. Feng et al (2019) reported a (CePO 4 ) 0.16 /Co 2 P catalyst, which achieved 98.2% LA conversion and 97.1% GVL yield at 90 • C, 4.0 MPa H 2 in 1.5 h. Moreover, the catalyst continued to have high performance in at least five cycles, which proved that it can maintain long-term activity and stability under strongly acidic conditions.…”

Promotion effects of PrPO4 for the hydrogenation transformation of biomass-derived compounds over Pr–Ni–P composites

“…In addition, there are more than one unsaturated bond in some biomass platform molecules, which means that the selective hydrogenation of definite bond is crucial for the application of these molecules, with furfural hydrogenation as example, ensuring the ideal selectivity to the objective product of furfuryl alcohol is highly desired in industry, 20,21 but it could still be a challengeable task even if using precious metal catalysts, since the metallic surface is prone to be equally functional for the hydrogenation of C=C on the ring and C=O on the branch. 8,9 In view of defects of metal catalysts, we have attempted to employ intermetallic compound such as metal phosphide (M 2 P, M= Ni or Co) as hydrogenation catalysts, 22,23 in consideration of the following interesting features of the compound. Firstly, although metal phosphide is a kind of covalent compound with metal component in oxidized state, the compound could present properties analogous to metal alloy in both structure and catalytic performance; 24,25 secondly, the cost-affordable compound could be more robust to bear the corruption in liquid reaction system than its metallic counterpart.…”

“…Firstly, although metal phosphide is a kind of covalent compound with metal component in oxidized state, the compound could present properties analogous to metal alloy in both structure and catalytic performance; 24,25 secondly, the cost-affordable compound could be more robust to bear the corruption in liquid reaction system than its metallic counterpart. 22,23 Unfortunately, it were testified that the isolated M 2 P catalysts were not efficient for liquid hydrogenation reactions, for instance, when using Co 2 P for hydrogenation of levulinic acid, the desired gamma-valerolactone was just produced in the low yield due to the poor capability of phosphide to activate hydrogen. 23 However, when introducing Ce to fabricate Ce-Co-P composites, the ability of CePO 4 to chemically activate hydrogen that is comparable to metal surface was discovered, which made the decisive contribution in improving catalytic efficiency on the composites.…”