Sulfur vacancy-rich 1T–2H MoS2 homojunction supported CoO catalyst for m-cresol hydrodeoxygenation

Abstract

To enhance the selectivity and catalytic activity of m-cresol to toluene in the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO), a unique CoO@MoS₂ with high density of sulfur (S)-deficient sites and the 1T-2H homojunction was proposed and synthesized via a facile strategy. As far as the synthesized catalysts are concerned, remarkable directional catalytic performance was manifested in the HDO of m-cresol, specifically 97.5% conversion of m-cresol and 98.8% selectivity to toluene. Furthermore, CoO@MoS₂ catalyst also exhibits remarkable versatility in C-O bond cleavage of other lignin-derived phenols (e.g., p-cresol). The excellent HDO activity of CoO@MoS₂ can be attributed to the existence of abundant S vacancies and 1T-2H homojunction in the MoS₂ support. These features are demonstrated to be feasible for modification of surface charge transfer properties to subsequently influence the adsorption, activation, and desorption between m-cresol and products, thus lowering the activation energy during the reaction, facilitating the progress of reaction and improving the selectivity as a result.