Polymer-Based Synthetic Routes to Carbon-Based Metal-Free Catalysts

Carbons are increasingly important as possible alternatives to expensive metal catalysts owing to the wide range of chemical properties they can exhibit and the growing set of synthetic routes available to produce them. This progress report discusses the process of making catalytic carbons from polymeric precursors, focusing on mechanisms of carbonization and how the polymer structures and synthetic procedures affect the resulting carbons. In considering what is necessary to move laboratory catalytic carbons to industrial and commercial applications, the cost and complexity to produce them are a considerable challenge to overcome. Industrially produced carbons are typically made from biopolymers such as lignin while many of the catalytic carbons studied in literature are from synthetic polymers. Thus, studying polymer-derived carbons can provide insights into the carbonization process and the properties of catalytic carbons, which can subsequently be translated to improve biopolymer-derived carbons in an economical way. Aspects of polymer carbonization discussed include carbonization mechanisms, effects of crosslinkers, polymer microstructure, heteroatom control, and effects of nanostructuring.