Graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets were investigated for developing effective Pt catalyst supports for selective hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol in water. The nanosheets with an average thickness of about 3 nm were synthesized by a simple and green method through thermal oxidation etching of bulk g-C₃N₄in air. Combined with the unique feature of nitrogen richness and locally conjugated structure, the g-C₃N₄nanosheets with a high surface area of 142 m²g⁻¹were demonstrated to be an excellent supports for loading small-size Pt nanoparticles. Superior furfural hydrogenation activity in water with complete conversion of furfural and high selectivity of furfuryl alcohol (>99%) was observed for g-C₃N₄nanosheets supported Pt catalysts. The large specific surface area, uniform dispersion of Pt nanoparticles and the stronger furfural adsorption ability of nanosheets contributed to the considerable catalytic performance. The reusability tests showed that the novel Pt catalyst could maintain high activity and stability in the furfural hydrogenation reaction.

The search for green and sustainable modification method to produce durable bamboo materials remains a challenge in industry. Here, heat treatment in tung oil at 100–200 °C was employed to modify bamboo materials. Oil permeation and distribution in the structure of bamboo samples during heat treatment were explored. The synergistic effects of tung oil and heat treatment on the chemical, physical and mechanical properties of bamboo materials, and their mutual relationships were also investigated in detail. Results showed that the tung oil heat treated bamboo not only had an enhanced hydrophobic property and dimensional stability, improved fungi resistance, but also displayed good mechanical performance. Compared with the untreated sample, the water-saturated swelling reduced from 3.17% to 2.42% for the sample after oil heat treatment at 200 °C, and the contact angles of the sample after oil heat treatment at 200 °C can keep >100° after 300 s in radial direction. Such improvement can be attributed to changes of chemical components, increased crystallinity structure, and the formation of oily films inside or over the bamboo surface. Therefore, tung oil heat treatment can be a highly promising technology for bamboo modification in the industry.

In this study, the effects of tung oil heat treatment on the physico-mechanical properties of moso bamboo were investigated. Here, heat treatment in tung oil at 100–200 °C was used to modify natural bamboo materials. The changes in the nanostructures of cell walls in bamboo caused by oil heat treatment, like density, chemical compositions, and cellulose crystalline, were evaluated to study their correlation with mechanical properties. Results showed that the mechanical performance of bamboo, such as ultimate stress, modulus of elasticity (MOE), and modulus of rupture (MOR), didn’t reduce after heat treatment below 200 °C, compared with the untreated bamboo, which was mainly due to the tung oil uptake, stable cellulose content, and the increment of cellulose crystalline. No remarkable change in the ultimate strain occurred for bamboo materials thermally treated below 140 °C, but it decreased obviously at the heating temperature over 180 °C, mainly due to the degradation of hemicellulose resulting in a decrease in the viscoelasticity of cell wall.

The search for and exploitation of efficient catalytic systems for selective conversion of furfural into various high value-added chemicals remains a huge challenge for green synthesis in the chemical industry. Here, novel Pt nanoparticles supported on bamboo shoot-derived porous heteroatom doped carbon materials were designed as highly active catalysts for controlled hydrogenation of furfural in aqueous media. The porous heteroatom doped carbon supported Pt catalysts were endowed with a large surface area with a hierarchical porous structure, a high content of nitrogen and oxygen functionalities, a high dispersion of the Pt nanoparticles, good water dispersibility and reaction stability. Benefiting from these features, the novel Pt catalysts displayed a high activity and controlled tunable selectivity for furfural hydrogenation to produce furfuryl alcohol and cyclopentanone in water. The product selectivity could be easily modulated by controlling the carbonization temperature of the porous heteroatom doped carbon support and the reaction conditions (temperature and H ₂ pressure). Under mild conditions (100 °C, 1 MPa H ₂ ), furfuryl alcohol was obtained in water with complete conversion of the furfural and an impressive furfuryl alcohol selectivity of >99% in the presence of Pt/NC-BS-500. A higher reaction temperature, in water, favored rearrangement of the furfural (FFA) with Pt/NC-BS-800 as the catalyst, which resulted in a high cyclopentanone yield of >76% at 150 °C and 3 MPa H ₂ . The surface properties and pore structure of the heteroatom doped carbon support, adjusted using the carbonization temperature, might determine the interactions between the Pt nanoparticles, carbon support and catalytic reactants in water, which in turn could have led to a good selectivity control. The effect of different reaction temperatures and reaction times on the product selectivity was also explored. Combined with exploration of the distribution of the reaction products, a reaction mechanism for furfural reduction has been proposed.

The direct reductive amination of carbonyl compounds with NH3 and H2 is an alternative route to produce primary amines in practical production. The search for efficient and selective catalysts has attracted great interest. In the present work, the reductive amination of heptaldehyde with NH3 was investigated over a Ru-based catalyst. The product selectivities were found to be related with the supports of Ru. The alumina with spinel structure (γ-Al2O3, θ-Al2O3)-supported Ru catalysts exhibited selectivity favoring primary amines (94% yield) at 100% heptaldehyde conversion under optimal conditions. Purely basic (MgO, CaO) and relative acidic (Nb2O5, SnO2, MCM-41, HZSM-5) supports showed relatively poor selectivity towards primary amines (0%–53% yield). The reductive amination mechanism was also proposed. The Schiff base N-[heptylene]heptyl-1-amine was a key intermediate. Ru/γ-Al2O3 was shown to be an excellent hydrogenolysis catalyst to selectively produce primary amine by amination and hydrogenolysis of N-[heptylene]heptyl-1-amine.