Nanocarbon as Robust Catalyst: Mechanistic Insight into Carbon‐Mediated Catalysis

Kicking the coke habit: In nanocarbon-catalyzed oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene, oxygen is dissociatively adsorbed, and breaking of CH bonds in ethylbenzene is kinetically relevant. In contrast to metal-based catalysts, the subsurface structure plays no role in the activity of the nanocarbon catalyst. Unlike activated carbon, the nanocarbon catalysts show no loss of activity from coking or combustion.