Styrene is a widely used monomer in polymer industries for the manufacturing of plastics, rubbers and resins. The commercial styrene production process suffers from disadvantages such as requiring multiple steps, catalyst deactivation, high energy consumption and low yield. To address the aforementioned problems, metal complex catalysed single-step oxidative coupling of benzene and ethylene to styrene have been proposed. The attempts so far for the heterogenization of metal complexes lead to worsening the catalytic performance due to metal leaching or clustering. Here, we have presented a first step towards the development of a heterogeneous catalyst to synthesize styrene directly from benzene and ethylene in a single- step. We have anchored palladium nanoparticles on the thermal defect rich surface of graphitic carbon nitride and prepared a heterogeneous catalyst (Pd@d-C₃N₄) that is active for the single-step styrene production. The product and side-products were analysed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. To understand the role of active sites, the catalysts were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy techniques. A combination of microscopic and spectroscopic characterization supports the hypothesis that the activity of Pd@d-C₃N₄ catalyst is associated with their layered structure, surface defect site, and well-stabilized palladium nanoparticles.

苯乙烯是聚合物工业中广泛使用的单体，用于制造塑料、橡胶和树脂。商业苯乙烯生产过程存在需要多步、催化剂失活、能耗高和收率低等缺点。为了解决上述问题，已经提出了金属配合物催化苯和乙烯单步氧化偶联至苯乙烯。迄今为止，金属配合物异质化的尝试导致由于金属浸出或聚集而导致催化性能恶化。在这里，我们展示了开发非均相催化剂的第一步，该催化剂可以一步直接从苯和乙烯合成苯乙烯。₃ N ₄ ) 对单步苯乙烯生产有活性。产物和副产物通过气相色谱与质谱联用进行分析。为了了解活性位点的作用，催化剂通过 X 射线光电子能谱 (XPS)、X 射线衍射 (XRD)、高分辨率透射电子显微镜 (HRTEM)、原子力显微镜 (AFM)、Brunauer-Emmett- Teller (BET) 和傅里叶变换红外 (FT-IR) 光谱技术。微观和光谱表征的结合支持了 Pd@dC ₃ N ₄催化剂的活性与其层状结构、表面缺陷位点和稳定良好的钯纳米颗粒相关的假设。