ZrO₂ stablishing CoO facilitates hydrogenolysis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-dimethylfuran

The synthesis of high value-added 2,5-dimethylfuran (2,5-DMF) from catalytic hydrogenolysis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) is one of significant reactions for biomass utilization, but it still confronts big challenges for the development of base metal catalysts with high performance. In this work, we fabricated series of ZrO₂ modified Co nanocatalysts derived from layered double hydroxides (LDHs), wherein metastable state CoO species can be stablished via sacrifice of a portion of surface vacancies, for selective synthesis of 2,5-DMF via 5-HMF hydrogenolysis. The optimal catalyst 2ZrO₂-Co/Al₂O₃ shows great catalytic performance and good stability, which gives a high 2,5-DMF yield of up to 97.3 %. The addition of ZrO₂ stablishes the metastable state CoO species, which cooperate with suitable oxygen vacancies and enhance the adsorption of 5-HMF and heterolytic dissociation of H₂ to generate highly active H^δ− species, consequently achieving excellent catalytic performance for hydrogenolysis of 5-HMF to 2,5-DMF.