Especially with the production of fine chemicals catalytic reactions are being performed in which solid catalysts suspended in liquids are used. Carbon is stable in both acid and alkaline liquids and is not preferentially wetted by water. Carbon is therefore an attractive support for catalysts to be used in liquid-phase reactions. The relatively low diffusion coefficients in liquids call for catalyst bodies having wide pores and dimensions between 1 and 10 μm. Since particles smaller than 1 μm cannot be readily separated from liquids, attrition of carbon support bodies must be avoided. However, it is difficult to produce active carbon bodies of 1 to 10 μm of a high mechanical strength. Also with gas-phase reactions, the low mechanical strength of active carbon bodies limits the applicability of active carbon.

From supported metal particles carbon filaments of a diameter between 10 and 300 nm can be grown rapidly. The diameter is generally of the same order of magnitude as the size of the metal particles. The graphite layers within the fibrils, that have a circular cross-section, are oriented either parallel to the fibril axis or at an angle, which leads to cone-shaped graphite layers. The mechanism of growth of carbon fibrils from supported metal particles will be dealt with. The parallel orientation of the graphite layers leads to a very high mechanical strength, while the porous structure is extremely open. A representative value for the surface area is 225 m2/g and for the pore volume 1.6 ml/g, which leads to an average pore dimension of 28 nm.

To apply active precursors, such as, palladium salts, the surface of the carbon fibrils must be oxidized, e.g., by treatment with nitric acid. A very high dispersion of palladium can thus be achieved. The dispersion of components active in hydrogenation can be assessed by the ability to react the support with hydrogen to methane. The activity of catalyst on carbon fibrils in the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene as well as the filterability of carbon fibril catalysts will be compared with that of commercial catalysts.