WOx modified Cu/Al2O3 as a high-performance catalyst for the hydrogenolysis of glucose to 1,2-propanediol

Abstract Glucose is one of the most important platform molecules of biomass in nature. The selective hydrogenolysis of glucose to 1,2-PDO is still a challenge. However, The hydrogenolysis of fructose has higher activity and selectivity to 1,2-PDO. Therefore, A series of Cu-WO x /Al 2 O 3 catalysts with high activity for glucose isomerization to fructose and fructose hydrogenolysis to 1,2-PDO were designed for glucose hydrogenolysis to 1,2-PDO. The W surface density was controlled as low as 0.8 W/nm 2 . The low W surface density could make the WO x species present as isolated WO 4 structure, which could only provide more Lewis acid sites. As a result, the isolated WO 4 species could form a complex with glucose and then promote the isomerization of glucose to fructose. The isolated WO 4 species also have coverage, dispersion, and electronic effects on copper sites, resulting more stable copper sites and proper amount of hydrogenation sites on Cu-WO x /Al 2 O 3 surface. The correlations between the ratio of Lewis acid amount to Cu surface area and the selectivity of 1,2-PDO suggest that the hydrogenolysis of glucose to 1,2-PDO follows the bifunctional reaction route which contains the reactions on Lewis acid and metal sites. Furthermore, the highest 1,2-PDO selectivity of 55.4% was obtained on Cu-WO x (0.8)/Al 2 O 3 .