Direct synthesis of nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbons for acetylene hydrochlorination

Nitrogen-doped ordered mesoporous carbon (N-OMC) catalysts were directly synthesized using SBA-15 as a hard template and sucrose as a carbon source. Urea, which was used as the nitrogen source, was carbonized with sucrose. A 3.6 wt% nitrogen doping of the carbon framework was achieved, with more than 70% of the nitrogen incorporated as quaternary nitrogen species. Only 0.2 wt% nitrogen doping, with only 32.7% quaternary nitrogen incorporation was obtained in an N-OMC catalyst (N-OMC-T) prepared using a two-step post-synthesis method. The acetylene hydrochlorination activities of N-OMC catalysts prepared via the one-step method were higher than that of the N-OMC-T catalyst because of the higher nitrogen loadings.