Yeast-derived N, P co-doped porous green carbon materials as metal-free catalysts for selective hydrogenation of chloronitrobenzene†

Biomass provides a promising source of carbon for obtaining environment-friendly carbon materials, but obtaining heteroatom-doped carbon materials (HDCMs) from biomass directly by a green method still remains challenging. This study successfully synthesized nitrogen and phosphorus co-doped porous carbon materials (Y-NPC) by the simple in situ pyrolysis of renewable yeast mixed with water from 800 to 950 °C. Various characterization methods show that nitrogen and phosphorus are doped into the carbon skeleton and mainly exist in the forms of graphite-N, pyridine-N, C–P, P–N, and P–O states. The catalyst Y-NPC-900 °C with a 3D hierarchical porous structure and high P–N content exhibited superior nitro hydrogenation performance and reaction stability using molecular hydrogen and hydrazine hydrate as hydrogen sources under mild conditions. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations and experiments attributed the exceptional catalytic performance to hydrogen activation and the good adsorption ability of substrates over N, P co-doped carbon (NPC). Therefore, this research proposes an eco-friendly and simple synthesis strategy for in situ N, P co-doping metal-free carbon catalysts derived from biomass, showing the significance of N, P co-doping and single N- or P-monodoping in the charge distribution of carbon materials.