Boosting the selectivity of higher alcohols in upgrading of aqueous bioethanol over amphiphilic NiSn@C-MgO catalyst

Bio-ethanol produced from biomass has been regarded as a promising feedstock for producing higher alcohols (C4+ alcohols) through the Guerbet route. Nevertheless, the high-efficiency upgrading of bio-ethanol is driven by the current disadvantage of low selectivity to C6+ alcohols. Herein, we designed and synthesized an amphiphilic [email protected], which was composed of NiSn nanoparticles (NPs) coated with carbon shell and MgO nanoflakes support. Detailed experiments reveal that the amphiphilic [email protected] catalyst can stabilize emulsions and facilitate the cross-coupling of ethanol and C4+ alcohols (generated by ethanol self-condensation) to generate C6+ alcohols in aqueous ethanol upgrading. Furthermore, the carbonization temperature has a great influence on the structure of [email protected], thus greatly affecting the catalyst performance. Consequently, the optimal [email protected] displays an excellent activity with ethanol conversion of 73.3 %, the selectivities of C6+ alcohols and C8+ alcohols in liquid products also reach up to 60.9 % and 32.5 %, respectively. This present strategy provides an efficient strategy for the direct upgrading of water-containing bio-ethanol to desired biofuel components, which may promote the fundamental researches on the production of biorefineries and green fuels.