Single‐Atom Zn Catalyst with ZnNx Active Sites Efficiently Promoted Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley Reduction of Biomass‐Derived Carbonyl Compounds

Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley (MPV) reduction is a highly promising strategy to selectively convert biomass‐derived carbonyl compounds. Cost‐effective and efficient heterogeneous catalysts for MPV reduction are still highly desired. In this study, N‐doped carbon‐supported Zn‐based catalytic materials (denoted as Zn@C‐T, in which T was the pyrolysis temperature) was fabricated by the pyrolysis of Zn‐based coordination polymer formed from ZnCl 2 and polyvinyl pyrrolidone. Very interestingly, the material prepared at 900 °C (Zn@C‐900) showed excellent catalytic activity on MPV reduction of various biomass‐derived carbonyl compounds to generate the corresponding alcohols, originating from the formed ZnN x sites in Zn@C‐900. Especially, the usage of Zn was only 0.6 mol%, which was much lower than the usage of Zr in the popular Zr‐based catalysts, confirming the great potential of the Zn@C‐900 in large‐scale applications. Systematic investigations revealed that the excellent catalytic activity of Zn@C‐900 was predominantly enabled by the synergistic effect of Zn (as Lewis acid sites) and N (as Lewis base sites) in the ZnN x sites, which could simultaneously activate the carbonyl group in carbonyl compounds and the hydroxyl group in isopropanol, thereby significantly promoting the MPV reduction of carbonyl compounds. This work provided a cost‐effective and efficient Zn‐based catalyst for MPV reduction of biomass‐derived carbonyl compounds.