Few-layer sp2 carbon supported on Al2O3 as hybrid structure for ethylbenzene oxidative dehydrogenation.

Hybrid materials consisting of few-layer sp 2 carbon supported on Al 2 O 3 can potentially display comparable performance with nanodiamonds for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene. The hybrid structure could be easily prepared by fast coking method using ethanol as a precursor and ɣ-Al 2 O 3 with high specific surface areas as a template. In this case, ɣ-Al 2 O 3 plays the role of 3D support for depositing few-layer graphene-like structure. The hybrid structure exhibiting similar structure with nanodiamonds calcined at high temperature is further used as a metal-free catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene. The yield rate of styrene normalized by the specific area on Al 2 O 3 @C is 0.044 mmol m −2 h −1 (TOF = 4.13 h −1 ) which is two times of that on nanodiamonds (0.020 mmol m −2 h −1 , TOF = 3.27 h −1 ). Considering the low cost process and good catalytic performance, the hybrid nanostructure may be a promising candidate to be applied in the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]