A novel type of nanoporous carbon material supporting high dispersion of rhodium nanoparticles

Abstract

Nanoporous carbon (NC) was prepared by the controlled pyrolysis of copolymer of vinylidene chloride and acrylonitrite. These organicinorganic hybrid polymers were synthesized by suspending polymerization. After gradually controlled pyrolysis at 180–300 °C under nitrogen stream, the resulting material was carbonized at 1000 °C for 3h under argon stream. In this way, nanoporous carbon was obtained, which has uniform pore size in the range of 0.8–1.6nm and specific surface area of 900–1000 m2 g-1. The surface morphology and chemical composition were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Rhodium particles kept in a highly dispersed state over it were prepared and characterized by XPS and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The expected high catalytic activity of the final material for methanol carbonylation was observed experimentally.