Chemical synthesis of mesoporous carbon nitrides using hard templates and their use as a metal-free catalyst for Friedel-Crafts reaction of benzene

Abstract

(Figure Presented) In the footsteps of Liebig and Berzelius: A material first synthesized in 1834, carbon nitride (C3N4), was synthesized in a graphitic mesoporous form by using silica nanoparticles as templates. The resulting electron-rich solid is an active catalyst for the Friedel-Crafts acylation of benzene with hexanoyl chloride. Presumably the catalysis arises from a shift of electron density from the MOs of the catalyst to the unoccupied orbitals of benzene (see picture). © 2006 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.