Selective hydrogenolysis of catechyl lignin into propenylcatechol over an atomically dispersed ruthenium catalyst

C-lignin is a homo-biopolymer, being made up of caffeyl alcohol exclusively. There is significant interest in developing efficient and selective catalyst for depolymerization of C-lignin, as it represents an ideal feedstock for producing catechol derivatives. Here we report an atomically dispersed Ru catalyst, which can serve as an efficient catalyst for the hydrogenolysis of C-lignin via the cleavage of C-O bonds in benzodioxane linkages, giving catechols in high yields with TONs up to 345. A unique selectivity to propenylcatechol (77%) is obtained, which is otherwise hard to achieve, because this catalyst is capable of hydrogenolysis rather than hydrogenation. This catalyst also demonstrates good reusability in C-lignin depolymerization. Detailed investigations by model compounds concluded that the pathways involving dehydration and/or dehydrogenation reactions are incompatible routes; we deduced that caffeyl alcohol generated via concurrent C-O bonds cleavage of benzodioxane unit may act as an intermediate in the C-lignin hydrogenolysis. Current demonstration validates that atomically dispersed metals can not only catalyze small molecules reactions, but also drive the transformation of abundant and renewable biopolymer.