A series of metal and metal phosphide catalysts were investigated for the hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol under ex situ catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) conditions (350 �C, 0.5 MPa, 12 H<
sub>
2<
/sub>
:1 guaiacol, weight hourly space velocity 5 h<
sup>
$-$1<
/sup>
). Ligand-capped Ni, Pt, Rh, Ni<
sub>
2<
/sub>
P, and Rh<
sub>
2<
/sub>
P nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared using solution-phase synthesis techniques and dispersed on a silica support. For the metal phosphide NP-catalysts, a synthetic route that relies on the decomposition of a single molecular precursor was employed. The reactivity of the NP-catalysts was compared to a series of reference materials including Ni/SiO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
and Pt/SiO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
prepared using incipient wetness (IW) impregnation and a commercial (com) Pt/SiO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
catalyst. The NP-Ni/SiO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
catalyst exhibited the largest reduction in the oxygen mol% of the organic phase and outperformed the IW-Ni/SiO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
material. Although it was less active for guaiacol conversion than NP-Ni/SiO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
, NP-Rh2P/SiO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
demonstrated the largest production of completely deoxygenated products and the highest selectivity to anisole, benzene, and cyclohexane, suggesting that it is a promising catalyst for deoxygenation of aryl-OH bonds. Finally, the com-Pt/SiO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
and IW-Pt/SiO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
catalyst exhibited the highest normalized rate of guaiacol conversion per m<
sup>
2<
/sup>
and per gram of active phase, respectively, but did not produce any completely deoxygenated products.