Efficient hydrogenolysis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-dimethylfuran over Ni-C3N4 catalysts with ultra-low Ni loading

Selective hydrogenolysis of biomass-based platform compounds is of great importance for the production of chemicals and fuels. Herein, we reported that the catalyst of Ni-C 3 N 4 supported on H 2 activated carbon (HC) synthesized by a simple coordination-impregnation-pyrolysis method is efficient for the hydrogenolysis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF); the yield of 94.2% can be obtained in a batch reactor and the lifetime of greater than 120 h can be achieved in fixed-bed experiment. It is demonstrated that Ni nanoparticles coated by graphitic C 3 N 4 shell were highly dispersed on the surface of HC and the Ni loading is as low as 0.86 wt%, beneficial to the anti-sintering of Ni nanoparticles during the reaction. Both XPS characterizations and theoretical calculations reveal that Ni 3 N is the intrinsic active component for the hydrogenolysis , which exhibits efficient activity for the dissociation of C–O bond. This work opens up a new avenue to develop catalysts with single non-noble metal component for the efficient conversion of biomass-based chemicals.