Thermal Treatment Effects on the Catalytic Performance of 0.6 wt% Pt/TiO₂ for Furfural Hydrogenation

Abstract

This study investigates the selective hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol (FA) using 0.6 wt% platinum supported on titania (Pt/TiO₂) catalysts synthesized via the wet impregnation method. The motivation lies in developing environmentally benign catalysts capable of operating under mild conditions, as an alternative to industrial CuCr catalysts, which present toxicity risks. Three catalysts Reduced, Re-treated, and Calcined + Reduced were prepared with different thermal treatments and tested at 30,40 and50 °C under 3 bar H₂ in isopropanol. Comprehensive characterization using XRD, BET, and MP-AES revealed that while all catalysts contained ~0.59 wt% Pt, differences in activity correlated with surface area, crystallite size, and metal–support interactions. The Calcined + Reduced catalyst exhibited the highest activity (up to 14% conversion at 50 °C) with ~95% selectivity to FA, suggesting Calcination improves Pt dispersion and active site accessibility. In contrast, the Reduced catalyst showed the lowest conversion (<1%), despite having the highest surface area. These findings highlight the critical role of thermal treatment in optimizing the catalytic performance of Pt/TiO₂ catalysts for sustainable processing of bio-based compounds.