Selective hydrodeoxygenation of lignin-derived eugenol to propylcyclohexane over triazine polymer derived Co/NC-T catalyst

It is highly significant to develop effective catalysts made from non-precious metals for the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) process of eugenol to propylcyclohexane. A triazine polymer (PAF-53) was employed as a template to synthesize a highly potential Co/NC-T (nitrogen-doped carbon modified by template) catalyst through one-pot pyrolysis method, aiming to facilitate the HDO reaction of eugenol. The results of the characterization indicated that Co nanoparticles (NPs) were incorporated within the structure of nitrogen-doped carbon. Adding the suitable quantity of PAF-53 could improve the distribution of Co NPs, increase the specific area and average pore diameter, and facilitate the generation of numerous carbon nanotubes that are sparse and porous. Furthermore, the incorporation of PAF-53 improved the interaction between Co and nitrogen-doped carbon, and endowed Co/NC-T with high mobile electrons. As revealed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the adsorption of eugenol molecules was obviously enhanced, and the parallel adsorption configuration was remarkably favorable. The conversion of eugenol over Co/NC-T-1:4 reached 100% and the selectivity of propylcyclohexane reached 98.4%, at 300 °C, 3 MPa H 2 and a liquid hourly space velocity of 12 h −1 . Moreover, the Co/NC-T-1:4 catalyst exhibited remarkable durability and scalability during the HDO process of eugenol.