Low-Temperature Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenation of Biomass-Derived Furfural over Irreversibly Adsorbed and Highly Dispersed Zr(IV) Species

Developing pure inorganic catalysts for low-energy transfer hydrogenation of biomass-derived furfural and alcohols below 100 °C is still challenging. This work reports highly dispersed Zr­(IV) species catalysts prepared by irreversible adsorption of different solvent-dissolved Zr­(IV) cations such as Zr4+ or [Zr4(OH)8(H2O)16]8+ on/in SBA-15 through Zr–O coordination, without adding an alkaline precipitant and calcination treatment. In the transfer hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol, the Zr­(IV) species catalysts exhibited unexpectedly outstanding transfer hydrogenation activity at low temperatures of 70 and 85 °C, superior to other transition-metal (Zr4+, Hf4+, Fe3+, etc.)- and main-group metal (Al3+, etc.)-based inorganic catalysts, which need high reaction temperatures above 100 °C, and comparable to the best-performing metal–organic hybrid catalysts with precise defect engineering modification or specific macromolecular ligands, and had negligible Zr leaching amounts (