In this work, a series of Zn-Co@N-doped carbon materials were prepared by pyrolysis of Co/Zn-ZIF precursors under a N₂ atmosphere and used for high-efficiency synthesis of ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) from dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and diethyl carbonate (DEC). The Co to Zn molar ratio and calcination temperature were varied to study the physical and chemical properties of Zn-Co@N-doped carbon materials identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) analysis. It was deduced that the formation of a ZnO crystalline structure and the interaction between zinc and cobalt providing weak basic sites and strong basic sites, respectively, in different samples significantly affected their catalytic performance. The catalyst activated the reaction most effectively when the Co to Zn molar ratio was 1.0 and calcination temperature was 600 °C. With the DMC to DEC molar ratio controlled at 1:1, a superior yield of around 51.50% of product EMC can be gained over catalyst ZnCo/NC-600 at 100 °C with 1 wt% catalyst loading in 7 h.

Nano-sized HZSM-5 (n-HZSM-5) was synthesized and applied in the aromatization of glycerol. The effects of additives (carboxymethylcellulose sodium, NaCl, sodium alginate, etc.) on the chemical and physic properties of n-HZSM-5 during preparation were investigated. Metal modification was also investigated based on the synthesized n-HZSM-5. The results showed that the addition of carboxymethylcellulose sodium (CMC-Na), NaCl and sodium alginate (SA) led to forming smaller sizes of HZSM-5 and promoted the acid amounts of the catalysts, which increased its catalytic activities for obtaining BTX. The highest BTX yield of ~35% was obtained by SA derived n-HZSM-5, and the life of the catalyst were both obviously promoted by the additives with a highest of ~11 h by γ-(2,3-epoxypropoxy)propytrimethoxysilane (KH-560) derived n-HZSM-5. BTX yields could be improved by 40%by the addition of Zn and Cd in n-HZSM-5 while having little effect on the catalyst life.