An efficient catalyst of Cu/MIL-101 modified with CeO2 for the conversion of biomass-derived glycerol with aniline to 3-methylindole

An efficient catalyst of Cu/MIL-101 modified with CeO2 for the conversion of biomass-derived glycerol with aniline to 3-methylindole was constructed with the yield of the aimed product up to 59%. The characterizations revealed that the addition CeO2 to Cu/MIL-101 not only improved the dispersion of Cu particles, but also inhibited the sintering of active component, meanwhile, the number of weak acid sites of the catalyst was also greatly increased, which was favorable to the high selectivity of 3-methylindole. Moreover, the catalytic reaction mechanism was studied in depth, which both acetol and 1,2-propanediol were the intermediates in the synthesis of 3-methylindole.