In-situ construction of N-doped hollow carbon polyhedral cage anchored Co-Ni dual binding sites as nanoreactor for efficient real lignin oil hydrodeoxygenation

Rational design multifunctional nanoreactor with high activity under H2-free/low-H2 conditions for lignin hydrodeoxygenation reaction (HDO) is attractive for sustainable energy conversion. Here, strategy for in-situ assembly-etching was proposed to prepare N-doped hollow carbon polyhedral cage anchored Co-Ni dual binding sites as nanoreactors (CoxNiy/NC). Its unique and controllable hollow structure exhibits high content of pyridine-N as Lewis-base site for adsorption of substrate, and in adjacent nitrogen defect sites as active metal anchors enabled the Co2Ni1/NC to perform perfect the hydrodeoxygenation of real lignin oil. The conversion of lignin pyrolytic oil to cycloalkane products was achieved under 0.2 MPa H2 and 3 h, the yield of total liquid product and the cyclohexane were 87.8 wt% and 53.4 wt%, respectively. This research provides a novel way for upgrading raw bio-oil to high-value products under low energy consuming conditions.