Synergistic effects of WO3 and NiCu bimetals for the One-Pot conversion of cellulose into ethylene glycol

One-pot catalytic conversion of cellulose to ethylene glycol (EG) provides an efficient way toward the production of high value-added chemicals from the abundant biomass resource. However, control of product selectivity is a challenge due to the thermal instabilities of cellulose derived sugars. Here, a series of multifunctional NiCu/WO3 catalysts were prepared and applied to this process. By tuning the metal ratio and WO3 content, a high EG selectivity of 58.9% was obtained. The selectivity of total diols even reached 83.9%. Besides, the catalyst revealed excellent performance in the conversion of raw biomass. Characterization results showed that the special catalyst structure of WO3-wrapped metal particles enabled the reaction to proceed in a well-defined sequence and also facilitated the formation of NiCu-WOx-1-O(H) interfacial sites. These interfacial sites offered high activity for the C-C bond cleavage to produce glycolaldehyde from glucose. An appropriate amount of each active site ensured a well-synergistic effect of C-C cleavage and hydrogenation capabilities, thus resulting in the highly selective formation of EG.