Nitrogen-doped dual mesoporous carbon for the selective oxidation of ethylbenzene

Abstract

A nanocasting method to fabricate nitrogen-doped dual mesoporous carbon is proposed by the carbonization of nitrile functional ionic liquid (FIL) grafted SBA-15 for the first time. These carbon materials have high nitrogen content (12.8%), large specific surface areas (763 m² g⁻¹) and uniform rod morphologies, which are derived from FILs grafted on the surface of SBA-15. Furthermore, by adjusting the impregnation amount of ionic liquids on SBA-15, pore structures of these carbon materials can be adjusted from single to dual mesopores. The developed dual mesoporous carbon materials exhibit good catalytic performance in the selective oxidation of ethylbenzene, ascribed to the promoting effects of nitrogen-doping, high surface area and dual mesostructure. It may be concluded that the dual mesostructure has an advantage over a single mesostructure to obtain a fast mass transport rate, resulting in higher acetophenone yield.