Efficient hydrogenolysis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-dimethylfuran over Ni-C3N4 catalysts with ultra-low Ni loading

Selective hydrogenolysis of biomass-based platform compounds is of great importance for the production of chemicals and fuels. Herein, we reported that the catalyst of Ni-C3N4 supported on H2 activated carbon (HC) synthesized by a simple coordination-impregnation-pyrolysis method is efficient for the hydrogenolysis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF); the yield of 94.2% can be obtained in a batch reactor and the lifetime of greater than 120 h can be achieved in fixed-bed experiment. It is demonstrated that Ni nanoparticles coated by graphitic C3N4 shell were highly dispersed on the surface of HC and the Ni loading is as low as 0.86 wt%, beneficial to the anti-sintering of Ni nanoparticles during the reaction. Both XPS characterizations and theoretical calculations reveal that Ni3N is the intrinsic active component for the hydrogenolysis, which exhibits efficient activity for the dissociation of C–O bond. This work opens up a new avenue to develop catalysts with single non-noble metal component for the efficient conversion of biomass-based chemicals.