Boosting the activity of BiVO_x via vanadium-promotion for highly selective oxidation of biomass-derived xylose toward formic acid

Formic acid is a versatile and promising value-added chemical derived from the chemoselective transformation of renewable biomass resources. However, achieving a high production rate of formic acid remains a pivotal and enormous challenge. Herein, we synthesized a sequence of BiVO_x catalysts based on vanadium-promotion by a facile and cost-effective strategy for selective oxidation of biomass-derived xylose in water under O₂ atmosphere. Particularly, the resultant Bi₁V₂O_x exhibited a remarkably enhanced catalytic activity, higher selectivity toward formic acid, and excellent recyclability, giving a yield of 75.8 % and a production rate of formic acid (9.22 mol _FA mol_V⁻¹h⁻¹) at 170 °C within only 20 min. Such pronounced improved performance was largely attributed to the synergistic effect between V and Bi species, with higher surface area, abundant surface acidity, as well as stronger adsorption energy, meanwhile efficiently suppressing the formation of undesired by-products. This study demonstrates that the promotion of V in BiVO_x leads to more efficient catalytic oxidation of xylose to formic acid, and with further driven research that proved great potential for generating formic acid from renewable biomass resources for future industrial application.