Pt, Ni, and Pt–Ni/HY catalysts were prepared through mechanochemistry, without solvent. Upon optimization of the milling parameters, Pt–Ni/HY showed improved catalytic performance with less metal contents, which can be attributed to an improved metal distribution and interaction with the acid sites of HY zeolite.

Abstract

The global need to decrease CO₂ emissions led to the exploration of biomass-based fuels. However, the need to upgrade bio-oil through hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) reaction led to the search for more effective and environmentally sustainable bifunctional catalysts. Mechanochemistry, without any solvent, was chosen as a method to prepare metal-loaded (Pt, Ni, or both Pt–Ni) HY catalyst for the hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol, which was used as model molecule. Under optimized milling conditions of 30 min and 200 rpm, the simultaneous addition of Pt and Ni allowed to reduce the metal contents when compared with solely Pt- or Ni-loaded catalysts, with improved catalytic performance for the hydrogenation of guaiacol. This can be attributed to the favorable effect of the mechanochemistry approach used to introduce the metallic function, reducing the size of zeolite clusters and promoting an effective metal dispersion, which is expected to favor the interactions of the metal sites with the more accessible acid sites in the zeolite.