Nitrogen-doped flower-like porous carbon materials directed by in situ hydrolysed MgO: Promising support for Ru nanoparticles in catalytic hydrogenations

The development of novel, simple, and convenient techniques for the fabrication of porous carbon materials with desirable properties, such as tunable pore structures and the presence of nitrogen functionalities, from renewable and abundant biomasses is required. We herein describe an in situ directing method for the preparation of a nitrogen-doped flower-like porous carbon (NFPC) employing arbitrarily shaped MgO from bio-derived glucosamine chloride (GAH). Experimental evidence demonstrated that the structure directing effect of the Mg(OH)₂ nanosheets formed in situ from MgO hydrolysis was key to this process, with the original MgO morphology being irrelevant. Furthermore, this method was applicable for a wide variety of biomass-derived carbon precursors. The resulting NFPC exhibited a high nitrogen content of ≤9 wt.%, and was employed as a support to anchor small Ru nanoparticles (average size = 2.7 nm). The resulting Ru/NFPC was highly active in heterogeneous hydrogenations of toluene and benzoic acid, which demonstrated the advantages of nitrogen doping in terms of boosting catalytic performance.