Research progress in metal-free carbon-based catalysts

Metal-free carbon-based catalysts are one of the most active research directions in nanomaterials and catalysis. The advantages that nanocarbon catalysts have over metal catalysts include high efficiency, environmental compatibility, low energy consumption, and corrosion resistance. Nanocarbon can efficiently catalyze alkane conversion, chemical synthesis, energy catalysis and other heterogeneous catalytic processes. This review highlights recent progress in the development of metal-free carbon-based catalysts, including understanding their surface properties, catalytic performance and reaction mechanism and macroscopic architecture. The state-of-the-art and future challenges of metal-free heterogeneous catalysis are also discussed. (C) 2013, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.