Controllable design of phosphorus-doped cobalt sulfide for catalytic conversion of cellulose to methyl levulinate: The importance of Co3+/Co2+ ratio

Gang Wu, Shasha Liu, Jie Ren, Jiawei Zhu, Yun Yu, Suzana Yusup, Dengyu Chen, Shu Zhang and Yong Huang

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 250, issue C

Abstract: The development of efficient and recyclable heterogeneous catalysts for the catalytic conversion of cellulose into high-value platform chemicals has garnered significant attention. Cobalt sulfide, recognized for its earth-abundance and recyclability, has emerged as a promising catalyst for the production of methyl levulinate (ML) from cellulose, albeit with a noted disparity in catalytic performance when compared to conventional homogeneous catalysts. In this study, various phosphorus-doped cobalt sulfides (CoSxP2-x) were employed to enhance the production of ML from cellulose, with a particular focus on the sulfide-phosphorus ratio. Notably, an optimal ML yield of 48.9 wt% and a complete conversion of cellulose were achieved at a sulfide-to-phosphorus ratio of 1:1. Comprehensive characterization of the synthesized CoSxP2-x materials revealed that CoS1.00P1.00 exhibited distinctive properties, such as the presence of ternary acid sites and the lowest Co3+/Co2+ ratio among the series. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations elucidated that the bound electrons within the P-Co bonds were activated by the synergistic effects among Co, P, and S atoms, thereby diminishing the free energy barrier for the adsorption of reaction intermediates.

Keywords: Cellulose; Methyl levulinate; Phosphorus doping; Cobalt sulfide; Co3+/Co2+ ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014812500984X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:250:y:2025:i:c:s096014812500984x

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.123322

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().