Conversion of levulinic acid to N-substituted pyrrolidinones over a nonnoble bimetallic catalyst Cu15Pr3/Al2O3.

Abstract A nonnoble bimetallic metal catalyst Cu 15 Pr 3 /Al 2 O 3 readily prepared through incipient-wetness impregnation method was developed for the reductive amination of levulinic acid (LA) with amines to N -substituted-5-methyl-2-pyrrolidinones. A wide variety of N -substituted-5-methyl-2-pyrrolidinones were obtained in high yield over this catalyst. The characterization results from XRD, H 2 -TPR, XPS, TEM, NH 3 -TPD and N 2 adsorption-desorption revealed that Cu0 species are the active species for the hydrogenation in the reductive amination reaction. Besides, the doping of praseodymium into γ-Al 2 O 3 supported copper catalyst greatly enhanced the catalytic performance of Cu/γ-Al 2 O 3 due to better dispersion of Cu0. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Levulinic acid was transformed to pyrrolidinones in high yield over Cu 15 Pr 3 /Al 2 O 3. • Doping of Pr into Cu 15 /Al 2 O 3 optimizes the structure of copper based catalyst. • The bimetallic catalyst Cu 15 Pr 3 /Al 2 O 3 showed good performance in the reaction. • The non-noble bimetallic catalyst is low cost compared to reported noble catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]