Room-temperature hydrogenation of levulinic acid by uniform nano-TiO 2 supported Ru catalysts

Abstract Uniform TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) is synthesized by a facile hydrothermal approach and used as support for Ru NPs. It is found that HF amount has a considerable influence in the size and uniformity of TiO 2 NPs, and the optimized Ru/TiO 2 -0.4 is highly efficient for fast room-temperature hydrogenation of levulinic acid (LA) to γ-valerolactone (GVL) in water. For example, Ru/TiO 2 -0.4 Exhibits 5.1 times higher activity in comparison with commercial TiO 2 supported Ru (Ru/TiO 2 -C), and affords 97.4% LA conversion and u003e99% GLV selectivity at 30 °C and 1 MPa H 2 for 30 min. In particular, Ru/TiO 2 -0.4 can even reach 88.5% LA conversion at lower temperature to 10 °C. This catalyst is stable for recycle and also affords good conversion as well as high selectivity for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of biomass-derived vanillin, attributed to smaller sized TiO 2 NPs, easier electron donation from TiO 2 to Ru and higher reducibility of Ru species.