Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2021, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (11): 2027-2037.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(21)63828-7

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Encapsulated Ni-Co alloy nanoparticles as efficient catalyst for hydrodeoxygenation of biomass derivatives in water

Dongdong Wanga,b, Wanbing Gonga,#(), Jifang Zhanga,b, Miaomiao Hanc,$(), Chun Chena, Yunxia Zhanga, Guozhong Wanga, Haimin Zhanga, Huijun Zhaoa,d,*()   

  1. aKey Laboratory of Materials Physics, Centre for Environmental and Energy Nanomaterials, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, CAS Centre for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, Anhui, China
    bUniversity of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China
    cSchool of Science, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, Zhejiang, China
    dCentre for Clean Environment and Energy, Gold Coast Campus, Griffith University, Queensland 4222, Australia
  • Received:2021-03-16 Revised:2021-03-16 Accepted:2021-04-15 Online:2021-11-18 Published:2021-06-08
  • Contact: Wanbing Gong,Miaomiao Han,Huijun Zhao
  • About author:$E-mail:Tel: +86-551-65591263; Fax: +86-551-65591434; E-mail: mmhan@zjhu.edu.cn
    #Tel: +86-551-65591263; Fax: +86-551-65591434; E-mail: wbgong@issp.ac.cn;
    *Tel: +86-551-65591263; Fax: +86-551-65591434; E-mail: h.zhao@griffith.edu.au;
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(51902311);National Natural Science Foundation of China(51871209);National Natural Science Foundation of China(61804154)

Abstract:

Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is one of the most promising strategies to transform oxygen-rich biomass derivatives into high value-added chemicals and fuels, but highly challenging due to the lack of highly efficient nonprecious metal catalysts. Herein, we report for the first time of a facile synthetic approach to controllably fabricate well-defined Ni-Co alloy NPs confined on the tip of N-CNTs as HDO catalyst. The resultant Ni-Co alloy catalyst possesses outstanding HDO performance towards biomass-derived vanillin into 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol in water with 100% conversion efficiency and selectivity under mild reaction conditions, surpassing the reported high performance nonprecious HDO catalysts. Impressively, our experimental results also unveil that the Ni-Co alloy catalyst can be generically applied to catalyze HDO of vanillin derivatives and other aromatic aldehydes in water with 100% conversion efficiency and over 90% selectivity. Importantly, our DFT calculations and experimental results confirm that the achieved outstanding HDO catalytic performance is due to the greatly promoted selective adsorption and activation of C=O, and desorption of the activated hydrogen species by the synergism of the alloyed Ni-Co NPs. The findings of this work affords a new strategy to design and develop efficient transition metal-based catalysts for HDO reactions in water.

Key words: Ni-Co alloy nanoparticles, Carbon nanotubes, Hydrodeoxygenation, Biomass derivatives, H2O solvent