Defect‐Engineered MOF‐801 With Enhanced Lewis Acidity for Efficient Transfer Hydrogenation of Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol
Lijian Wang, Cong Yu, Junjie Bian, Xinbo WangABSTRACT
The catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of furfural into furfuryl alcohol offers a promising route for the valorization of lignocellulosic biomass using liquid hydrogen donors instead of high‐pressure H 2 . In this work, a defect‐engineered MOF‐801 catalyst with abundant Lewis acid sites was synthesized through a formic acid‐regulated hydrothermal approach. Competitive coordination between formic acid and fumaric acid favors the nucleation and growth of MOF‐801, and enhances the Lewis acidity of the catalyst. Characterization by FT‐IR, XRD, SEM, and pyridine‐IR confirmed the successful formation of MOF‐801 with dominant Lewis acid centers. Using isopropanol as the hydrogen donor, the optimized reaction conditions (130°C, 2 h, 1.0 MPa N 2 ) achieved 99.5% furfural conversion and 94.4% furfuryl alcohol yield. Kinetic analysis demonstrated a first‐order reaction with an apparent activation energy of 41.3 kJ·mol − 1 . The catalyst showed excellent recyclability and retained its crystallinity after five consecutive cycles. This study provides a simple and efficient method for constructing Lewis acidic MOFs with coordination unsaturated metal sites for biomass‐derived CTH reactions, supporting an upgrading and transformation of platform molecules under hydrogen‐free conditions.