Hydrogenation and cleavage of the C-O bonds in the lignin model compound phenethyl phenyl ether over a nickel-based catalyst

Phenethyl phenyl ether (PPE) was selected as a typical lignin model compound and hydrogenated and cleaved over two readily accessible nickel-based catalysts, which could be easily separated from the product mixture. The results revealed that the reduction of the nickel catalyst with gaseous hydrogen produced a species capable of achieving higher activity towards C-O-C bond cleavage compared to the Ru/C and Pd/C catalysts. The selectivity of the C-O-C bond cleavage over the Ni/C catalyst was 85%, and higher than the corresponding values in the Ru/C (40%) and Pd/C (69%) systems. Using the carbothermal reduction method for the production of the Ni/C-C catalyst, the conversion and selectivity levels reached 99%, with 40% of the benzene rings in PPE being reserved. In comparison, no benzene ring containing products wer observed over the noble metal catalysts. This difference was attributed to the interaction between the carbon support and the nickel nanoparticles. (C) 2013, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.