  The hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of lignin-derived feedstocks into value-added
chemicals with high efficiency and selectivity is desirable for the utilization
of biomass resource. The complex oxygen-containing groups of lignin-derived
substance result in the challenge of the low selectivity toward the required
product. In this work, highly dispersed Ru nanoparticles anchored on Ni3Al1
layered double oxides (LDOs) catalyst derived from NiAl layered double
hydroxides (LDHs) with flower-shaped morphology was constructed by a simple
deposition-reduction method. The introduction of LDHs-derived support can
significantly impact the catalytic activity for the HDO of lignin-derived
vanillin (VL) into 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (MMP). The Ru/Ni3Al1-400 catalyst
obtained complete conversion of VL and 94.2% yield of MMP at 130 {\deg}C in
methanol solvent, much better than the catalysts without LDHs-derived support.
The methanol solvent is beneficial for the conversion of reaction intermediate
of vanillin alcohol (VA). Detailed characterization reveals that the existence
of the enhanced metal-support interaction over Ru/Ni3Al1-400 and the easily
accessible acid sites facilitate the production of MMP.
