Low-temperature hydrodeoxygenation of phenol using modified TiO2(B) nanosheets supported highly dispersed Pt catalyst

Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of oxygenated compounds is essential for chemical refining, which is always carried out under high temperature, hydrogen pressure or/and strong acids. Herein, we developed a novel Pt/TiO2(B) catalyst for the ambient HDO process. With the modified organic functional TiO2(B) nanosheets, the catalytic activity of Pt/TiO2(B) was significantly improved. Through the synergistic effect of highly dispersed Pt species and TiO2(B) supports, phenol was efficiently converted into cyclohexane and concomitant cyclohexanol under 50 °C and atmospheric hydrogen without extra acid. The characterizations of catalysts showed that the introduction of organic functional groups not only led to the formation of highly dispersed Pt species, but was also conducive to the yielding of key HDO intermediates. Due to the low CO bond energy of enol intermediates, the HDO of phenol could be carried out at mild conditions through the implementable CO bond cleavage of enol intermediates. This study provides a new understanding of the green HDO process and a novel approach for HDO catalyst development.