The design of catalysts with high activity, selectivity, and stability is key to the electroreduction of CO2. Herein, we report the synthesis of 3D hierarchical metal/polymer–carbon paper (M/polymer‐CP) electrodes by in situ electrosynthesis. The 3D polymer layer on CP (polymer‐CP) was first prepared by in situ electropolymerization, then a 3D metal layer was decorated on the polymer‐CP to produce the M/polymer‐CP electrode. Electrodes with different metals (e.g. Cu, Pd, Zn, Sn) and various polymers could be prepared by this method. The electrodes could efficiently reduce CO2 to desired products, such as C2H4, CO, and HCOOH, depending on the metal used. For example, C2H4 could be formed with a Faradaic efficiency of 59.4 % and a current density of 30.2 mA cm−2 by using a very stable Cu/PANI‐CP electrode in an H‐type cell. Control experiments and theoretical calculations showed that the 3D hierarchical structure of the metals and in situ formation of the electrodes are critical for the excellent performance.

The transformation of levulinic acid(LA) to γ-valerolactone (GVL) in water at room temperature is very interesting. In this work, we designed and prepared single Ru atoms on TiO2@nitrogen droped porous...

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Catalytic conversion of renewable lignin to aromatics can effectively alleviate the fossil resource crisis. Herein, we prepared porous nitrogen-doped carbon-supported cobalt nanoparticle catalyst (CoNC) using a SiO2 template and tested its catalytic performance for cleavage of the β-O-4 ether bond in lignin model compounds. It was found that the catalyst pyrolyzed in a nitrogen atmosphere at 900 °C (CoNC-900) could catalyze 2-phenoxyacetophenone to ethylbenzene and phenol effectively, affording both in 99.0% yields. Further study indicated that the catalytic system was efficient for transformation of various β-O-4 ketones with methoxyl groups with high yields of desired products. The excellent catalytic performance was related to the cobalt nanoparticles, large pore volume, and specific surface area. Furthermore, the catalyst could be reused five times without obvious loss of the activity, indicating its stability during the reaction process. The reaction pathway was studied on the basis of some control experiments.

4-Cyclohexylmorpholines could be efficiently synthesized from reductive coupling of aryl ethers (including the typical lignin model compounds) with morpholines over Pd/C without using any acidic additives.