One-step Synthesis of N-Doped Mesoporous Carbon as Highly Efficient Support of Pd Catalyst for Hydrodechlorination of 2,4-Dichlorophenol

Although the hard template method is often employed to prepare N-doped mesoporous carbon(N-MC), the removal of the silica template commonly involves the use of highly toxic HF or repeated treatment with NaOH solution. Herein, we report a polyvinylidene fluoride-assisted one-step method for synthesis of N-MC, namely the silica-free N-MC can be prepared via temperature-programmed thermal treatment of a slurry obtained by dispersing nano-silica into a solution containing sucrose, urea, oxalic acid, polyvinylidene fluoride and dimethylacetamide. The resulting N-MC, which owns 3.47%(mass fraction) nitrogen and a surface area of 929 m2/g, is a highly suitable support of Pd catalyst used in hydrodechlorination of 2,4-dichlorophenol, with its performance being much better than those of MC and activated carbon. The excellent catalytic hydrodechlorination activity of the Pd/N-MC catalyst can be attributed to its strong metal-support interaction which results in a good Pd dispersion and high resistance to the growth of nanosized Pd under reaction conditions.