Selective cleavage of lignin and lignin model compounds without external hydrogen, catalyzed by heterogeneous nickel catalysts.

Selective hydrogenolysis of the Caryl-O bonds in lignin is a key strategy for the generation of fuels and chemical feedstocks from biomass. Currently, hydrogenolysis has been mainly conducted using hydrogen, which is flammable and not sustainable or economical. Herein, an external hydrogen-free process for aryl ethers hydrogenolysis in lignin models and dioxasolv lignin over nickel nanoparticles supported on Al2O3, is reported. Kinetic studies reveal that the transfer hydrogenolysis activity of the three model compounds decreased in the following order: benzyl phenyl ether (α-O-4), 2-phenylethyl phenyl ether (β-O-4) and diphenyl ether (4-O-5), which linearly corresponds to their binding energies and the activation energies. The main reaction route for the three model compounds was the cleavage of the ether bonds to produce aromatic alkanes and phenol, and the latter was further reduced to cyclohexanol. Dioxasolv lignin depolymerization results exhibit a significant Caryl-O decrease over the Ni nanoparticles supported on Al2O3 with iso-propanol as the hydrogen source through 2D-HSQC-NMR analysis, which confirmed the transfer hydrogenolysis conclusion in the model study. This work provides an economical and environmentally-friendly method for the selective cleavage of lignin and lignin model compounds into value-added chemicals.