Although molecular dinitrogen (N₂) is widely used as a carrier or inert gas for many catalytic reactions, it is rarely considered as a catalytic promoter. Here, we report that N₂ could be used to reduce the activation energy for catalytic hydrodeoxygenation over ruthenium-based catalysts. Specifically, we report a 4.3-fold activity increase in the catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of p-cresol to toluene over a titanium oxide supported ruthenium catalyst (Ru/TiO₂) by simply introducing 6 bar N₂ under batch conditions at 160 °C and 1 bar hydrogen. Detailed investigations indicate that N₂ can be adsorbed and activated on the metallic ruthenium surface to form hydrogenated nitrogen species, which offer protic hydrogen to lower the activation energy of direct carbon_aromatic–oxygen bond scission and the hydrogenation of hydroxy groups. Thus, by employing different ruthenium catalysts, including Ru/TiO₂, Ru/Al₂O₃, Ru/ZrO₂ and Ru/C, we demonstrate that N₂ promotion of hydrodeoxygenation can be regarded as a general strategy.

尽管分子二氮（N ₂）被广泛用作许多催化反应的载体或惰性气体，但很少将其视为催化促进剂。在这里，我们报道N ₂可以用来减少钌基催化剂加氢脱氧的活化能。具体而言，我们报告了通过在160°C和1 bar的间歇条件下简单引入6 bar N _2，在氧化钛负载的钌催化剂（Ru / TiO ₂）上对甲酚催化加氢脱氧甲苯的活性提高了4.3倍。氢。详细的调查表明，N ₂可以被吸附并活化在金属钌表面上，形成氢化的氮，从而提供质子氢，以降低直接碳_芳烃-氧键断裂和羟基氢化的活化能。因此，通过使用不同的钌催化剂，包括Ru / TiO ₂，Ru / Al ₂ O ₃，Ru / ZrO ₂和Ru / C，我们证明N ₂促进加氢脱氧可以被视为一般策略。