Biomass is the sole carbon-based renewable resource for sustaining the chemical and fuel demands of our future. Lignocellulose, the primary constituent of terrestrial plants, is the most abundant non-food biomass, and its utilisation is a grand challenge in biorefineries. Here we report the first reusable and cost-effective heterogeneous catalyst for the depolymerisation of lignocellulose. Air oxidation of woody biomass (Eucalyptus) provides a carbonaceous material bearing an aromatic skeleton with carboxylic groups (2.1 mmol g–1) and aliphatic moieties. This catalyst hydrolyses woody biomass (Eucalyptus) to sugars in high yields within 1 h in trace HCl aq. Furthermore, after the reaction, the solid residue composed of the catalyst and insoluble ingredients of woody biomass is easily transformed back to fresh catalyst by the same air oxidation method. This is a self-contained system using woody biomass as both the catalyst source and substrate for realising facile catalyst preparation and recycling.
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机译：生物质是维持我们未来化学和燃料需求的唯一碳基可再生资源。木质纤维素是陆生植物的主要成分，是最丰富的非食物生物质，其利用是生物精炼厂面临的巨大挑战。在这里，我们报告了木质纤维素解聚的第一种可重复使用且具有成本效益的非均相催化剂。木质生物质（桉树）的空气氧化提供了一种碳质材料，带有带有羧基（2.1 mmol g –1 ）和脂肪族部分的芳族骨架。该催化剂在微量HCl水溶液中，在1小时内以高收率将木质生物质（桉树）水解为糖。此外，反应后，由催化剂和木质生物质的不溶成分组成的固体残余物易于通过相同的空气氧化方法转化回新鲜催化剂。这是一个独立的系统，使用木质生物质作为催化剂源和底物，以实现简便的催化剂制备和再循环。
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