Hollow Mesoporous Nanoreactors with Encaged PtSn Alloy Nanoparticles for Selective Hydrogenation of Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol

Hollow mesoporous nanoreactors with encaged functional nanoparticles are promising heterogeneous catalysts due to the advantages related to their hollow cavities. In this study, we employ metal ion-bound polymer micelles to synthesize PtSn alloy nanoparticle-encaged hollow mesoporous nanoreactors (PtSn@HMSNs), which contain ∼4 nm PtSn alloy NPs located in ∼13 nm hollow cavities and relatively large (∼9 nm) mesoporous channels in silica shells. Relative to monometallic Pt@HMSNs and supported Pt1Sn0.3/SiO2, Pt1Sn0.3@HMSNs exhibit greatly enhanced activity and selectivity for hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol. At 1.0 MPa H2, 100 °C, and a furfural/Pt molar ratio of 1884:1, 97.5% of furfuryl alcohol yield was achieved in 5.0 h. The dramatically promoted catalytic performance of Pt1Sn0.3@HMSNs can be assigned to the confinement effect that the location of active NPs inside hollow cavities increases the collision rates between reactants and active NPs to promote catalytic activity, as well as the synergistic effect between Pt and Sn.