Carbon-Coated NiMoOx Bimetallic Catalyst for Selective Hydrodeoxygenation of Lipids to Fatty Alcohols

The hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of lipids to fatty alcohols is one of the most significant transformations in lipid chemistry because fatty alcohols have wide applications. Herein, a new carbon-coated NiMoOx catalyst (NiMoOx@C-2) has been fabricated through a novel detonation method. It exhibits catalytic activity and selectivity for the HDO of lipids to alcohols superior to those of most of the reported non-noble-metal catalysts, by which a 99% yield of stearic alcohol can be afforded at 200 °C under 2 MPa of H2 for 5 h. The carbon coating enables NiMoOx@C-2 to have strong chemical adsorption of the carbonyl group, which includes in the rate-determining step at low temperatures, but this adsorption will weaken at high temperatures, which may be the main reason why this catalyst exhibits excellent activity and selectivity for this HDO reaction. Different lipids, including stearic acid, palmitic acid, methyl stearate, and glyceryl tristearate, can be applied in this protocol to produce moderate-to-excellent yields of the corresponding alcohols (68–99%). In addition, this material also displays excellent stability and can be reused at least seven times.