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Abstract

Metal-free carbocatalysts enriched with specific oxygenated groups with different morphology and size were synthesized from glucose by hydrothermal carbonization, in which cheap and widely available biomass could be converted into functionalized carbon using an environmentally benign process. The hydroxy- and carbonyl-enriched hydrothermal carbon (HTC) could be used in nitrobenzene reduction, and higher conversion was obtained on the sphere morphology with smaller size. In the Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime, carboxyl-enriched HTC exhibited superior performance compared with conventional solid acid (such as HY and HZSM-5), on which the strong acid sites and weak Lewis acid sites lead to high selectivity for the side product. Although the intrinsic acidity of carbon is weak, the carboxyl-enriched carbon was used in weak Brønsted acid-catalyzed reactions, such as the Beckmann rearrangement.