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Published on: October 5, 2019
Defective h-BNs-Supported Pd Nanoclusters: An Efficient Photocatalyst for Selective Oxidation of
Xiaoxiao Wang1, Yanmei Yang1, Zhiqing Zhou1
1College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Functionalized Probes for Chemical Imaging in Universities of Shandong, Key Laboratory of Molecular and Nano Probes, Ministry of Education, Shandong Normal University. Jinan 250014, China.
Abstract:
5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is one of the most promising biomass-based chemicals that is used to produce many kinds of important compounds. Especially, the selective conversion of HMF to 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (HMFCA), an important chemical feedstock, has high industrial significance but is technically challenging. In this study, we present a high-performance photocatalyst for selective oxidation of HMF to HMFCA. By integrating an ultrasmall amount of palladium (Pd) nanoclusters (1.12‰ in weight) on defective hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (Pd/defective h-BN nanosheets (dh-BNs)), outstanding photocatalytic performance can be achieved, resulting in up to a 95% HMF conversion ratio with an 82% HMFCA selectivity. The performance is considerably higher than that of pristine dh-BNs and Pd on defect-free h-BNs. More importantly, this Pd/dh-BNs catalyst maintains a high catalytic activity after eight cycles, demonstrating robust catalytic stability. Density functional theory calculations indicate that Pd/dh-BNs can lower the energy barrier for HMF oxidation and facilitate the desorption of HMFCA, which contributes to the high selectivity catalytic performance. This study not only introduces a promising photocatalyst for sustainable chemical transformations but can also provide valuable insights into the design of advanced photocatalytic material for biorefinery applications.
