Carbon foams made of in situ produced carbon nanocapsules and the use as a catalyst for oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene

Carbon foams (CFoams) were made by combining a hard template with a catalytic graphitization method, in which polyurethane foam is used as a sacrificial template, polyamic acid is used as carbon source and Ni is used as catalyst. The cell walls of CFoams are made of in situ self-assembled carbon nanocapsules (CNCs) with diameters of 30-80 nm. The open cells of the CFoams are, on average, 500 mu m in diameter, and the cell walls are mesoporous. Thermogravimetric analysis reveals that CNCs account for about 85 wt.% of the CFoams (exclusive of the Ni). The CFoams show high activity and selectivity in the reaction of oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.