Single-step synthesis of hierarchical BxCN: a metal-free catalyst for low-temperature oxidative dehydrogenation of propane

A boron- and nitrogen-co-doped mesoporous carbon (BxCN) material with a hierarchical pore structure has been synthesized from a new boron precursor via a nanocasting approach. The newly synthesized material was thoroughly characterized by different characterization techniques. It was observed that the BxCN material has an excellent specific surface area, versatile pore diameter and large pore volume. Moreover, the pore diameter can be tuned by varying the amount of the boron source. By using solid-state MAS NMR and XPS, we demonstrated the N-B-C-type structure of the material. The material presented here has excellent stability under an oxygen atmosphere and we also confirmed the catalytic proficiency of this newly developed material in C-H bond activation reactions. The mesoporous BxCN material displays promising catalytic activity for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane (6.7%) with excellent selectivity for propylene (84.6%) without the presence of any metal.