Metal-Free Carbon Catalysts for Oxidative Dehydrogenation Reactions

Catalysis over carbon, especially nanocarbon, is an attractive topic in material science and chemical engineering fields due to its significant advantages compared with conventional metal or metal oxide catalysts. This paper summarizes the recent developments, basic concepts, and commonly accepted understandings on the nature of carbon catalysis in oxidative dehydrogenation reactions, including: introduction and comparison of various reaction systems; identity and quantity of active sites on carbon catalysts; mechanism for the reactions; and structure–selectivity relations for modified carbon catalysts. These fruitful conclusive achievements are the basis for in-depth comprehension of carbon-catalyzed oxidative dehydrogenation process at the molecular level, and many other efforts, such as detailed kinetic study, precisely controllable synthetic technique for nanocarbon catalysts, are still needed to further push carbon catalysis fields to practical applications.