Ni nanoparticles embedded in nitrogen doped carbon derived from metal–organic frameworks for the efficient hydrogenation of vanillin to vanillyl alcohol

The Ni@CN catalyst fabricated by a facile and feasible method presents high efficiency in the selective hydrogenation of vanillin under mild conditions.

Microwave-assisted depolymerization of lignin with synergic alkali catalysts and a transition metal catalyst in the aqueous system

In this study, synergic alkali catalysts (NaOH + NaAlO2) and Ni/ZrO2 were used for microwave-assisted lignin depolymerization.

Recent progress on selective hydrogenation of phenol toward cyclohexanone or cyclohexanol

Phenol is considered as an important platform molecule for synthesizing value-added chemical intermediates and products. To date, various strategies for phenol transformation have been developed, and among them, selective hydrogenation of phenol toward cyclohexanone (K), cyclohexanol (A) or the mixture KA oil has been attracted great interest because they are both the key raw materials for the synthesis of nylon 6 and 66, as well as many other chemical products, including polyamides. However, until now it is still challengeable to realize the industrilized application of phenol hydrogenation toward KA oils. To better understand the selective hydrogenation of phenol and fabricate the enabled nanocatalysts, it is necessary to summarize the recent progress on selective hydrogenation of phenol with different catalysts. In this review, we first summarize the selective hydrogenation of phenol toward cyclohexanone or cyclohexanol by different nanocatalysts, and simultaneously discuss the relationship among the active components, type of supports and their performances. Then, the possible reaction mechanism of phenol hydrogenation with the typical metal nanocatalysts is summarized. Subsequently, the possible ways for scale-up hydrogenation of phenol are discussed. Finally, the potential challenges and future developments of metal nanocatalysts for the selective hydrogenation of phenol are proposed.

An efficient method to prepare aryl acetates by the carbonylation of aryl methyl ethers or phenols

A low pressure of CO was used to prepare aryl acetates directly.

Tunable selectivity of phenol hydrogenation to cyclohexane or cyclohexanol by a solvent-driven effect over a bifunctional Pd/NaY catalyst

Hydrogenation of phenol is an important strategy to produce cyclohexane or cyclohexanol as both of them are raw materials for the synthesis of nylon-6 and nylon-66.