Nitrogen, Sulfur Co-doped Hollow Carbon-Encapsulated Cu/Co<sub>2</sub>P for Selective Oxidation Esterification of Furfurals
Yangyang Dong, Gaofeng Chen, Xiongxiong Zuo, Jiaran Li, Jiaran Li, Jia Yu, Ge Zhang, Junhua Kuang, Işıl Akpınar, Li Peng, Xing Tang, Jin‐Chao Dong, Lu Lin, Pengbo Lyu, Shuliang Yang, Jian‐Feng Li, Jian‐Feng Li
Abstract
With the remarkable capability of encapsulating multifunctional active sites inside, carbon-based materials play vital roles in multifarious chemical transformations such as hydrogenation reactions, oxidation reactions, esterification reactions, etc. Herein, we propose an efficient and facile approach to construct a Cu/Co 2 P@C-NS catalyst, which consists of nitrogen–sulfur co-doped carbon (C-NS) encapsulated cobalt phosphide (Co 2 P) and copper double active sites. This approach focuses on the design and preparation of core–shell materials, that is, the ZIF-67 core is coated with an adhesive poly(cyclotriphosphazene- co -4,4′-sulfonyldiphenol) (PZS) polymer shell. The ZIF-67 core possesses a highly porous structure, coexistence of carbon and nitrogen elements, and uniform dispersion of Co species, making it an ideal template. The heteroatomic PZS polymer with decent coating ability makes it a promising coating material for creating core–shell structures. Additionally, nitrogen species in the PZS polymer could coordinate with Cu 2+ to introduce extra Cu sites into the system. The Cu/Co 2 P@C-NS catalyst prepared from the pyrolysis of the precursor redistributes the surface charge of Co 2 P by additionally incorporating Cu, which effectively enhances substrate adsorption. As a result, the Cu/Co 2 P@C-NS catalyst demonstrates good catalytic performance in the oxidative esterification of furfuryl aldehydes. This study presents a reliable and straightforward method for preparing a non-noble-metal catalyst that exhibits high efficiency and activity in the one-pot oxidation and esterification of furfurals to methyl furoates.