Recently, a paper of Prof. Yanqin Wang group, “Pd/NbOPO4 Multifunctional Catalyst for the Direct Production of Liquid Alkanes from Aldol Adducts of Furans” has been published on Angewandte Chemie (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201403440/full). In this work, the quantitative conversion of furan-derived adducts into liquid alkanes was achieved under mild conditions, and the novel property of NbOx-based catalysts in C-O cleavage was studied experimentally and theoretically for the first time.
The conversion of biomass resources into liquid alkanes is typically a multistep process which requires high temperature and pressure. However, harsh conditions would lead to severe C-C bond cleavage and coke formation. To tackle this problem, Prof. Wang group designed a multifunctional Pd/NbOPO4 catalyst, enabling the quantitative conversion of furan-derived adducts into alkanes under mild conditions. Excellent activity and stability were observed with almost no decrease in octane yield (>90% throughout) in a 256 h time-on-stream test. Experimental and theoretical studies showed that NbOx species in Pd/NbOPO4 play the key role in this catalytic process. The results are of profound significance for understanding the catalytic property of Nb-based materials, and for catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of biomass resources into renewable gasoline, jet fuel and diesel.
The research was completed by doctoral students, Qineng Xia and Qian Cuan, under the direction of Prof. Yanqin Wang and Prof. Xueqing Gong, and was financially supported by National 973 Program led by Prof. Guangzhong Lu, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
The research interests of Prof. Wang are mainly in Porous Material and Catalysis. Prof. Wang has published more than 100 SCI papers with an H index of 26. Recent studies of catalytic biomass conversion have been published on Chem. Commun. 2011, 47:3924; ChemSusChem 2011, 4:1758; Green Chem. (2011, 13:2678;2012, 14:2506; 2014,16: 846);Appl. Energ.2012, 92:218; Int. J. Hydrogen Energ. 2012, 37:227; AICHE J 2013, 59:2558; Appl. Catal. A (2013, 459:52; 2014, 469:108); Appl. Catal. B 2014, 146: 244.
