Hydrogenolysis of the C-O bonds in lignin, which promises to be able to generate fuels and chemical feedstocks from biomass, is a particularly challenging and important area of investigation. Herein, we demonstrate a vanadium-catalyzed cleavage of a lignin model compound (2,6-dimethoxyphenol). The impact of the catalyst in the context of the temperature, reaction time, and the solvent, was examined for the cleavage of the methyl ethers in 2,6-dimethoxyphenol. In contrast to traditional catalytic transfer hydrogenolysis, which requires high pressure hydrogen gas or reductive organic molecules, such as an alcohol and formic acid, the vanadium catalyst demonstrates superior catalytic activity on the cleavage of the C-O bonds using water as a solvent. For example, the conversion of 2,6-dimethoxyphenol is 89.5% at 280°C after 48 h using distilled water. Notably, the vanadium-catalyzed cleavage of the C-O bond linkage in 2,6-dimethoxyphenol affords 3-methoxycatechol, which undergoes further cleavage to afford pyrogallol. This work is expected to provide an alternative method for the hydrogenolysis of lignin and related compounds into valuable chemicals in the absence of external hydrogen and organic solvents.

木质素中的CO键的氢解有望被证明可以从生物质中产生燃料和化学原料，这是一个特别具有挑战性和重要的研究领域。在本文中，我们证明了木质素模型化合物（2,6-二甲氧基苯酚）的钒催化裂解。检查了催化剂在温度，反应时间和溶剂的影响下，甲基醚在2，6-二甲氧基苯酚中的裂解。与需要高压氢气或还原性有机分子（例如醇和甲酸）的传统催化转移氢解反应相比，钒催化剂在使用水作为溶剂的情况下表现出对CO键断裂的优异催化活性。例如，使用蒸馏水48小时后，在280°C下2,6-二甲氧基苯酚的转化率为89.5％。值得注意的是，钒催化的2，6-二甲氧基苯酚中的CO键连接的裂解提供了3-甲氧基邻苯二酚，其进一步裂解得到了邻苯三酚。预期这项工作将提供一种在没有外部氢和有机溶剂的情况下将木质素和相关化合物氢解为有价值的化学品的替代方法。