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 μm 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.