Selective Dehydration of 1,3-Cyclopentanediol to Cyclopentadiene over Lanthanum Phosphate Catalysts

Cyclopentadiene is an important intermediate that is widely used in the production of useful chemicals, high-density aviation fuels and polymers. Conventional technologies for the production of cyclopentadiene from fossil energies suffer from low yield and selectivity. Therefore, the selective production of cyclopentadiene from renewable biomass is highly expected. In this work, a series of metal phosphates were found to be effective solid acid catalysts for the selective synthesis of cyclopentadiene from the dehydration of 1,3-cyclopentanediol, a platform compound that can be obtained from the aqueous phase rearrangement of furfuryl alcohol followed by hydrogenation. Among the investigated catalysts, lanthanum phosphate (LaP) exhibited the best performance. Over it, 100% 1,3-cyclopentanediol conversion and higher than 90% carbon yield of cyclopentadiene were achieved at 473 K under atmospheric pressure. Based on the results of characterization, the excellent performance of LaP catalyst can be rationalized by its higher amount of acid sites and average pore size.