Synergy of metallic Pt and oxygen vacancy sites in Pt-WO catalysts for efficiently promoting vanillin hydrodeoxygenation to methylcyclohexane

Pt-WO 3− x catalysts showed very high catalytic activity in complete hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of vanillin, a typical model compound of lignin, affording methylcyclohexane (MCH) in 92.5% yield at 220 °C, under 4.0 MPa H 2 and in 2 h in n -hexane as the solvent. By tuning the reduction time and pre-treatment of the WO 3 support, the influence of Pt species and oxygen vacancy sites of Pt-WO 3− x on vanillin HDO performance was analyzed. The reaction pathway of vanillin HDO over Pt-WO 3− x was proposed. Moreover, Pt-WO 3− x showed wide applicability to the HDO of other phenols and high catalytic stability. Pt-WO 3− x catalysts with more Pt 0 species and proximity of oxygen vacancy active sites derived from WO 3− x , assisted by the hydrogen spillover effect, lead to an excellent methylcyclohexane yield (92.5%) at 220 °C, under 4.0 MPa H 2 in n -hexane solvent.