Improved Pd/Ru metal supported graphene oxide nano-catalysts for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of vanillyl alcohol, vanillin and lignin

Pd and Ru nanoparticles supported on graphene oxide (GO) [Pd@GO and Ru@GO] and bimetallic [Pd/Ru@GO] were prepared and well characterized by XRD, FT-IR, EDS, TEM, XPS and ICP-AES analyses. The prepared nano-catalysts were tested for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of lignin monomer molecules - vanillyl alcohol and vanillin. In comparison with previously reported methods, Ru@GO and bimetallic Pd/Ru@GO catalysts showed high activity and selectivity, under milder conditions, at room temperature and 145 psi H-2 pressure, for the formation of p-creosol, a value added product, as a potential future biofuel with antibacterial and anti-insecticidal properties. The multifold advantages of both these catalysts are in terms of reduced catalyst loading with a lower metal content and ambient temperture conditions resulting in higher conversion of the starting material. Furthermore, the efficacy of the developed methodology using Ru@GO and bimetallic Pd/Ru@GO catalysts under the optimized conditions was tested on the phenolic components of commercial lignin obtained by photo-catalytic fragmentation using TiO2, to obtain a mixture after HDO which contained vanillyl alcohol and p-creosol among others, as indicated by HPLC-MS analysis.