Renewable biomass-derived hollow carbon sphere for efficient transformation of lignin-derived phenols to high value chemicals

Utilization of biomass derived raw material to create advanced and high value carbon biochar have attracted tremendous attention, the exploration and functionalization of novel biomass derived raw material have presented serious challenges to contemporary chemical industry. Therefore, a new renewable biomass-derived hollow carbon sphere derived from eco-friendly and environmental-friendly puffball loaded different active sites was designed to generate Co 8 M 2 /BC catalysts. The novel biomass puffball derived catalysts exhibited an excellent catalytic efficiency in hydrodeoxygenation of biomass derived phenols to obtain value-added chemicals and fuels. In this work, Vanillin (VAN) was used as a model substrate to estimate the catalytic efficiency of as-prepared Co 8 M 2 /BC catalysts. The results showed that the Co 8 Mo 2 /BC catalyst exhibited excellent catalytic activity for the VAN hydrodeoxygenation reaction to achieve achieved 99.24% conversion of VAN and 92.79% yield of 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (MMP) under the optimal reaction conditions (240°C, 4 h, 1 MPa H 2 and 15 mL isopropanol). The uniquely shaped hollow sphere carbon, large specific surface area and synergistic catalytic effect of the Co-Mo alloy was the key reasons for the perfect hydrodeoxygenation ability. H 2 temperature program reduction (H 2 -TPR) illustrated the strong interaction between biochar and active sites and the NH 3 temperature programmed desorption (NH 3 -TPD) demonstrated a suitable amount of acid sites was responsible for high catalytic hydrodeoxygenation performance. In addition, the possible reaction mechanization of VAN hydrodeoxygenation was also proposed in the end of the study. This work provided new sights in preparation of advanced biomass derived biochar catalysts for catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of biomass derived phenols to produce high value chemicals and fuels.