Guanine biomolecule derived nitrogen-doped carbon for efficient oxidative dehydrogenation performance

Biomolecule self-assembly shows great potential in the preparation of ordered functional materials. Here, we prepare a gauzy NC material via water guiding guanine biomolecule self-assemble, which exhibits the better ethylbenzene conversion (~50%), styrene selectivity (~91%) and long-term stability (>40 h) in ODH of ethylbenzene to styrene than that of guanine solid self-assembly produced NC (38% conversion vs. 88% selectivity) sample. The study shows that water not only facilitates guanine biomolecule self-assembly to form more stable octamer structure but restrains vertical growth of guanine, and resultant NC-1000-12 h holds high density active sites and outstanding oxidation resistance, thus enhancing NC catalytic performance. Overall, current work provides a new understanding on preparation of highly efficient NC materials through supramolecular self-assembly strategy.