Selective hydrogenation of benzoic acid over bimetallic NiCo embedded in N-doped carbon

The selective hydrogenation of biomass-derived benzoic acid (BA) to cyclohexane carboxylic acid (CCA) is vital to producing fine chemicals from renewable sources. Herein, a novel nitrogen-doped carbon supported bimetallic catalyst (Ni 1 Co 1 /NC) was synthesized via a PVP-assisted method to catalyze the selective hydrogenation of BA to CCA. Compared with the non-doped Ni 1 Co 1 /C and single counterparts, Ni 1 Co 1 /NC exhibited a substantially enhanced activity, with 98.1% yield of CCA. The excellent performance was attributed to the NiCo synergistic effect and N-doped thin carbon layer, which could increase the total proportion of Ni 0 and Co 0 species via donating electrons to Co and thus improve the H 2 adsorption capacity, the hydrogenation activity of aromatic rings in BA and the stability. This work demonstrates a synergetic effect between NiCo bimetal and N-doped thin carbon layer. This would pave the way for the rational design and synthesis of high-performance non-noble catalysts used in BA hydrogenation.