Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.56, No.45, 12910-12920, 2017
Novel Bifunctional Palladium-Dodecatungstophosphoric Acid Supported on Titania Nanotubes: One-Pot Synthesis of n-Pentyl Tetrahydrofurfuryl Ether from Furfuryl Alcohol and n-Pentanol
n-Pentyl tetrahydrfurfuryl ether has the desired properties to be used as a diesel component. In this work, a one-pot synthesis of n-pentyl tetrahydrofurfuryl ether from the condensation of n-pentanol and furfuryl alcohol followed by hydrogenation was studied using a novel metal acid bifunctional catalyst containing palladium and dodecatungstophosphoric acid (DTP) supported on titania nanotubes (TNTs). The synthesized catalysts were well characterized by various techniques. The effect of different loadings of DTP on TNT was studied, and 20% (w/w) loading showed the best result. The TNT supported DTP catalyst shows better activity as compared to the TiO2 supported one which is due to the high dispersion of DTP and acidity of the former as revealed by characterization. The best catalyst 20% (w/w) DTP/TNT was then impregnated with different Pd loadings and used for hydrogenation to get the desired product. The catalyst is active, selective, and reusable and can be employed in one-pot synthesis of several industrially relevant products.