Highly dispersed Pt on N-doped TiO2 nanosheets for highly efficient selective hydrogenation of furfural

•The N-doped TiO2 nanosheets was synthesized via facile one step hydrothermal process.•The N-doped TiO2 nanosheets display higher surface area and abundant oxygen vacancies.•The Pt/N–TiO2–ST catalyst has more exposed Pt0 active sites than Pt/TiO2-ST due to its smaller Pt particle size.•The Pt/N–TiO2–ST catalyst exhibits high catalytic performance with hydrogenation of FAL to FOL. Highly efficient synthesis of valuable furfuryl alcohol by furfural hydrogenation is still a challenge for Pt-based catalysts under mild conditions. Herein, we report the synthesis of N-doped TiO2 nanosheets (N–TiO2–ST) by a simple one-step hydrothermal method. Subsequently, platinum catalysts were loaded onto N-doped TiO2 nanosheets using a simple impregnation method followed by reduction with sodium borohydride (NaBH4). The resulting catalysts exhibited excellent catalytic performance in the hydrogenation of furfural. Especially, the turnover frequency (TOF) of Pt/N–TiO2–ST reached 694 h-1, much higher than that of Pt/TiO2-ST (565 h-1). Furthermore, the structure and surface properties of as-prepared samples was characterized with the combination of XRD, Raman, N2 adsorption-desorption, SEM, TEM, XPS, CO chemisorption and CO-FTIR. The excellent catalytic performance of Pt/N–TiO2–ST can be ascribed to higher surface area and surface defects (oxygen vacancies) on the N-TiO2 nanosheets, which improves the diffusion of Pt species on the support surface and forms ultrafine Pt particles to expose more active sites (Pt0 species) for selective adsorption and activation of CO groups of furfural. The results show that Pt/N–TiO2–ST is a viable and promising catalyst for furfural hydrogenation.