Catalytic hydrogenation of furfural over Cu/CeO2 Catalyst: The effect of support morphology and exposed facet

The hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol in liquid was performed over Cu/CeO 2 catalyst with different morphology that was nanorod (CeO 2 -R), nanocube (CeO 2 -C) and nanopolyhedron (CeO 2 -P), respectively. It was observed that the Cu/CeO 2 -R catalyst exposed (1   1   0) crystal plane owns more oxygen vacancies and metal sites of Cu 0 in comparison with the catalyst of Cu/CeO 2 -P and Cu/CeO 2 -C. Meanwhile, it exhibited superior catalytic performance for furfural hydrogenation to furfuryl alcohol with a high yield of 98 % at 100 °C, 2 MPa H 2 within 4 h. The structure–activity relationship demonstrated that the catalyst intrinsic activity (TOF) is positively related to the concentration of oxygen vacancies and the metal sites of Cu 0 on its surface. DFT calculations and in-situ FTIR confirmed that Cu/CeO 2 -R (1   1   0) catalyst with more oxygen vacancy is in favor of the adsorption and activation of furfural (C O) on the catalyst surface compared with Cu/CeO 2 -P (1   1   1) and Cu/CeO 2 -C (1   0   0). Accordingly, the remarkable efficiency of Cu/CeO 2 -R catalyst can be assigned to the synergistic catalysis between the surface Cu 0 and the oxygen vacancies. Cu 0 was used to adsorb and activate H 2 , whereas the oxygen vacancies facilitate the adsorption of C O by O on the surface of the catalyst.