Monolayer CoMoS Anchored on Hydrophobic Reduced Graphene Nanoribbons for Efficient Hydrodeoxygenation

Improving both the activity and stability is of great importance for MoS2-based catalysts in the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) reaction. Herein, we report the construction of monolayer CoMoS anchored on hydrophobic-reduced graphene nanoribbons (ML-CoMoS/rGNRs) which exhibited excellent activity and stability in the HDO of 4-methylphenol. The superior HDO activity was attributed to the single layer structure of MoS2, which allows the good exposure of abundant edge sites for accommodating Co promoters to form the Co–Mo–S active phase. Besides, the hydrophobicity of rGNRs enables the fast removal of H2O during the HDO reaction, which alleviates the sulfur loss and endows the excellent stability of supported CoMoS monolayers. Consequently, ML-CoMoS/rGNRs afforded 97.3% conversion and 98.4% toluene selectivity at 220 °C for at least five reaction cycles. This work provides novel insights for designing highly active and stable metal sulfide catalysts for the application in the HDO reaction.