Abstract:
The valorization of waste plastic to renewable chemicals is essential for human civilization. Bimetallic bifunctional catalysts can promote liquid-phase hydrodeoxygenation to produce liquid fuels and value-added
chemicals. Ru-Ni/H-Beta bi-functional catalyst is demonstrated for the hydrodeoxygenation of bisphenol A, a
monomer of polycarbonate (PC), and PC plastic waste under mild reaction conditions, afforded a complete
conversion and > 90% selectivity of propane-2,2-diyldicyclohexane (P7), a JET fuel range C15 cycloalkanes. The
process was scaled to 2 g of plastic waste. The catalyst exhibited excellent activity (TOF-309 h-1 at 0.3 h),
reusability, and substrate diversity. The performance of Ru-Ni/H-Beta catalysts depends on the synergy between
Ru and Ni, with the best performance observed at the Ni/Ru weight ratio of 0.5. The bimetallic Ru-Ni catalytic
strategy and mechanistic understanding presented in this work provide promising insight into catalyst design and
could be applied to other chemical transformations requiring efficient hydrodeoxygenation catalysts.
