Environmentally-friendly and sustainable synthesis of bimetallic NiCo-based carbon nanosheets for catalytic cleavage of lignin dimers

• Published in: Inorganic chemistry communications 2021-10, Vol.132, p.108816, Article 108816
• Main Authors: Chen, Changzhou, Wu, Dichao, Ren, Jurong, Liu, Peng, Xia, Haihong, Zhou, Minghao, Jiang, Jianchun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Catalytic transfer hydrogenation; CNs; Lignin; NiCo; β-O-4
• ISSN: 1387-7003; 1879-0259
• DOI: 10.1016/j.inoche.2021.108816

A sustainable 2D metal-based NiCo-based carbon nanosheet (CNs) material were synthesized via a template method and it was efficient for cleavage of CO ether bond in lignin. [Display omitted] •Sustainable approach for the production of NiCo-doped ultrathin CNs in one-step.•Cleavage of CO bond employing isopropanol as hydrogen-donor solvent.•Materials fabricated with cheap metal. This paper reports on a study of 2D metal-based (Ni-, NiCo-) carbon nanosheet (CNs) material that were synthesized via a template method and the synthetic materials showed an ultra-thin lamellar structure. The structures were characterized using different analytical methods including XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM, XPS, NH3-TPD. The synthesized NiCo-based CNs are ultrathin sheet shape with good crystallinity and uniform particle distributions. In the synthetic route of NiCo-based CNs, sodium lignosulfonate was employed as carbon and sulfur source and boric acid was used as 2D template to form a perfect lamellar structure. It manifested an environmentally-friendly and sustainable concept for preparation of the 2D NiCo-CNs. Although simple CNs was a poor catalyst, after Ni and NiCo doping, it became highly active in cleavage of β-O-4 ether bond in lignin through a catalytic transfer hydrogenation process and led to very high product yields.