Surface decoration strategy is applied to design NP catalyst for the selective hydrogenolysis of C-O bond without hydrogenating benzene ring, which is critical in lignin conversion under hydrogen treatment. The synthesized NiOx/Rh NPs are featured with-Rh core whose surface is partially blocked by NiOx which segregated the surface terrace zones into smaller segments, preventing the coordination and hydrogenation of benzene rings. Moreover, the NiOx shows, no electronic modification to the Rh core, thereby the blockage effect of NiOx only inhibits the hydrogenation of benzene ring but not affect the hydrogenolysis activity-of Rh core. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.