Abstract
The production of monophenols from lignocellulose with cellulose intact without exogenous hydrogen via self-hydrogen supplied fractionation is promising, yet requires high metal loadings and yields saturated products. Herein, we report a single-atom alloyed Pt1Ni catalyst that achieves 50.9 wt% yield of phenolic monomers from birch sawdust with about 50% selectivity to valuable propenyl side-chained products under mild conditions (140 °C, 1 atm N2), while preserving cellulose intact. Reaction pathway studies and density functional theory calculations based on a β-O-4 model compound reveal three coexisting pathways. The Pt1Ni alloy preferentially promotes the dehydroxylation of Cα-OH and forms a key Cα = Cβ intermediate due to the oxygen affinity of Ni sites, and ultimately, enhance the production of valuable propenyl products via the synergistic effect of Pt and Ni. This work provides a strategy for maximizing Pt utilization and producing unsaturated chemicals from biomass under hydrogen-free conditions, advancing sustainable biorefining.
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All data generated in this study are provided in the Supplementary Information/Source Data file. Source data are provided with this paper. All data are available from the corresponding author upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the financially supports by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFA1504903, 2022YFA1504904, 2023YFA1507601) (Y.Q.W.) and assistance with XAS measurement from Canadian Light Source.
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H.Z., Z.R.G., K.P.S., X.H.L., and Y.G.: preparation and characterization of catalysts, and performing the catalytic reactions. Q.X. and X.M.C.: DFT calculations. M.S. and Y.F.H.: collection and analysis of XAS data. X.M.C. and Y.Q.W.: overall direction of the project. H.Z., Q.X., X.M.C., and Y.Q.W. wrote the manuscript with the help from all authors.
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Zhou, H., Xiang, Q., Guo, Z. et al. Efficient Pt1Ni single-atom alloy catalyst for hydrogen-free catalytic fractionation of lignocellulose. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70993-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70993-0
