Highly Active Heterogeneous Au/K2Ti6O13 Catalysts for Selective Oxidation of Furfural to Furoic Acid

A series of potassium titanate nanowires (KTO) with different K content were prepared by hydrothermal treatment, followed by anchoring Au nanoparticles (NPs) using the deposition‐precipitation method. The obtained Au/KTO‐24 showed a furfural (FF) conversion of 100% and a furoic acid (FA) yield of 96% at 80 °C and 1 MPa O ₂ for 2 h in FF oxidation system. K improves metallic Au NPs dispersion and induces a negative shift of Au ⁰ 4f binding energy. Kinetic studies show that Au/KTO‐24 displays low apparent activation energy (51.23 kJ/mol). The catalytic mechanism of FF oxidation to FA was investigated with in situ FT‐IR (Fourier transform infrared) spectroscopy and DFT (density functional theory)  calculations, which indicates that the high performance of Au/KTO‐24 is attributed to not only its abundant numbers of surface Au active sites but also its interfacial Au─O─K structure that facilitates the activations of FF and O ₂ .