Abstract Benzene oxidation to phenol is an important chemical process in industry. We present here a honeycomb-like porous carbon (HPC) as metal-free catalyst for benzene direct oxidation to phenol in the presence of hydrogen peroxide under mild reaction conditions. Different from supported metal catalysts, carbon on HPC served as catalytically active sites for benzene direct oxidation to phenol as it was capable of decomposing H2O2 into active oxygen species. Characterizations by XPS and Raman spectra accompanied by H2O2 decomposition tests revealed that the catalytic activity was associated with structure defects of the HPC. The hydrogen-reduced HPC exhibited higher catalytic activity as compared to that of pristine HPC, which was attributed to the formation of more structure defects. With the hydrogen reduction, structure defects of the HPC were increased. Meanwhile, carbon active sites bonded by oxygen-containing species were released to attain more active sites, consequently accelerating the oxidation of benzene.

中文翻译：

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无金属蜂窝状多孔碳作为苯直接氧化苯酚的催化剂

摘要 苯氧化制苯酚是工业上一个重要的化学过程。我们在这里提出了一种蜂窝状多孔碳 (HPC) 作为无金属催化剂，用于在温和的反应条件下在过氧化氢存在下将苯直接氧化成苯酚。与负载型金属催化剂不同，HPC 上的碳作为苯直接氧化为苯酚的催化活性位点，因为它能够将 H2O2 分解为活性氧物种。XPS 和拉曼光谱表征以及 H2O2 分解测试表明催化活性与 HPC 的结构缺陷有关。与原始 HPC 相比，氢还原的 HPC 表现出更高的催化活性，这是由于形成了更多的结构缺陷。随着氢还原，HPC 的结构缺陷增加。同时，由含氧物种键合的碳活性位点被释放以获得更多的活性位点，从而加速苯的氧化。