Atomically Dispersed Co Catalyst for Efficient Hydrodeoxygenation of Lignin-Derived Species and Hydrogenation of Nitroaromatics

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have attracted much attention due to their outstanding catalytic performance in heterogeneous catalysis. Here, we report a template sacrificial method to fabricate an atomically dispersed Co catalyst; three kinds of silica templates with different microstructures (MCM-41, SBA-15, and FDU-12) were employed and the effect of pore structure of the templates on the dispersity of Co was investigated. The catalysts fabricated with different templates presented different Co dispersities, leading to distinguishing catalytic performance. The optimized Co1@NC-(SBA) catalyst with atomically dispersed Co displayed outstanding catalytic activity for the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of lignin-derived species as well as the hydrogenation of various nitroaromatics. The reaction mechanism of the HDO of vanillin was investigated by using density functional theory calculations as well.