Topic: Carbon in Catalysis

Carbon (C), in its main allotropic forms, dominates catalysis and material science. It serves as the fundamental structural “backbone” of all organic molecules essential for life and exhibits a remarkable versatility, forming stable bonds with other carbon and non-carbon elements to give rise to an extensive array of new compounds surpassing any other elements in the periodic table. Since the late twentieth - beginning of the twenty-first century, seminal discoveries, such as that of fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and then graphene, have largely boosted research and application of these nanostructured materials in a constantly growing number of technological fields often linked to humankind needs in everyday life. At the same time, the upscaled production of well-known carbon allotropes (e.g., graphite, diamonds, activated carbon, and carbon black) as analytically pure samples has grown into a global business. Furthermore, the continuous discovery of challenging C forms (i.e., nanohorns, nanospheres, etc.) has largely stimulated fundamental research of chemists and physicists active in the field of material science and, particularly, catalysis.  

In heterogeneous catalysis, carbon materials have traditionally served as porous and high surface area carriers (more or less innocent) for a metal active phase or, in some cases, as undesired deposits/coatings (“coking”) formed during a given catalytic process. However, the last decade has witnessed impressive growth in the use of nanostructured carbons, including plain systems and light-heterodoped networks, as metal-free catalysts in thermal, electro, and photo-electro-catalysis. These materials often exhibit unique and superior performance compared to that of traditional metal-based catalysts, including those from the Platinum-Group-Metals (PGM) series. Understanding the complex structure-reactivity relationships that govern the catalytic performance of C-based networks featuring easily tunable morphological and electronic properties has definitively paved the way for developing new catalysts and catalysis technologies. In electrochemistry and electrocatalysis, C-based networks hold unique properties as supports and metal-free active catalysts. In electrocatalysis, carbon networks hold unique properties, such as electrical conductivity and surface tunability (i.e., through an ad-hoc chemical grafting of selected functional groups or their controlled calcination), that make them unique and often irreplaceable carriers/catalysts. In addition, carbon samples can accommodate various porosities (micro‐, meso‐, and macropores), thus allowing for modifying their specific surface areas or tuning their mass and reagents transport aptitude in gas or liquid-phase reactions. A timely issue for carbon in catalysis deals with the need to match catalytic processes with priority targets of the fast C cycle. Accordingly, this entails cycling C sources in the atmosphere to the biosphere and back to the atmosphere while converting them into value-added products with an ultimate net-zero or, preferably, negative C impact. This process is fundamentally linked to the C cycle, which can alleviate the effects of global warming mainly caused by C-containing greenhouse gases. Biomass valorization processes nowadays represent a significant source of ideas and sustainable processes for the production of C-based building blocks for the fine chemical industry and/or C architectures for running new chemical and catalytic processes. The rapid development of nanotechnology has exponentially expanded the use of C in catalysis due to its rational combination with other nanostructured organic/inorganic materials to generate a plethora of hybrid composites. 

All in all, this Special Issue of Chemical Synthesis, dedicated to “Carbon in Catalysis”, aims to collect the world’s leading scientific contributions that describe the state‐of‐art and the latest breakthroughs related to the use of carbon in catalysis. It will join together contributions spanning from the production, functionalization, characterization, and application of C-based samples as supports and/or catalysts in various technological fields. The quality of the papers and the topics covered in this volume will offer insight into the current catalytic technology associated with C materials while providing a current and solid literature reference for scientists active in the field.