Effects of Alloying Palladium with Gold in Furfural Hydrogenation:an in situ ATR-IR Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory study

Furfural is a versatile platform molecule and a model compound to explore the key factors influencing activity and selectivity in heterogeneous catalysis. In this study, Pd and AuPd nanoparticles (average size 3.5–4 nm) were deposited on TiO2 by sol immobilization method and were evaluated for liquid-phase furfural hydrogenation. Alloying Au and Pd caused a decrease in activity, an enhancement in stability, and a change in selectivity, favouring the complete hydrogenation of furfural over the decarbonylation reaction. These variations in catalytic performance were elucidated by combining in situ attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy and density functional theory studies.