Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2019, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (9): 1385-1394.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(19)63334-6

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Mesoporous carbons as metal-free catalysts for propane dehydrogenation: Effect of the pore structure and surface property

Zhong-Pan Hua, Jin-Tao Rena, Dandan Yanga, Zheng Wangb, Zhong-Yong Yuana   

  1. a Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China;
    b State Key Laboratory of High-efficiency Utilization of Coal and Green Chemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, Ningxia, China
  • Received:2019-01-20 Online:2019-09-18 Published:2019-07-06
  • Contact: S1872-2067(19)63334-6
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21421001, 21573115), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (63185015), and the Foundation of State Key Laboratory of High-efficiency Utilization of Coal and Green Chemical Engineering (2017-K13).

Abstract: Nanocarbon materials have been used as important metal-free catalysts for various reactions including alkane dehydrogenation. However, clarifying the active sites and tuning the nanocarbon structure for direct dehydrogenation have always been significantly challenging owing to the lack of fundamental understanding of the structure and surface properties of carbon materials. Herein, mesoporous carbon materials with different pore ordering and surface properties were synthesized through a soft-templating method with different formaldehyde/resorcinol ratios and carbonization temperatures and used for catalytic dehydrogenation of propane to propylene. The highly ordered mesoporous carbons were found to have higher catalytic activities than disordered and ordered mesoporous carbons, mainly because the highly ordered mesopores favor mass transportation and provide more accessible active sites. Furthermore, mesoporous carbons can provide a large amount of surface active sites owing to their high surface areas, which is favorable for propane dehydrogenation reaction. To control the surface oxygenated functional groups, highly ordered mesoporous carbons were carbonized at different temperatures (600, 700, and 800℃). The propylene formation rates exhibit an excellent linear relationship with the number of ketonic C=O groups, suggesting that C=O groups are the most possible active sites.

Key words: Mesoporous carbons, Propane, Dehydrogenation, Propylene, Metal-free catalysis