Patent ID: 7825064

Claim:
A process for making a porous catalyst, comprising (a) providing an aqueous solution containing a nanoparticle precursor; (b) forming a composition containing nanoparticles; (c) adding a first catalytic precursor and a pore-forming agent to the composition containing nanoparticles and allowing the first catalytic precursor, the pore-forming agent, and the nanoparticles to form a solution, wherein the first catalytic precursor is a metal salt, wherein the metal salt comprises ammonium metavanadate, ammonium metatungstate, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, rhenium, rhodium, rubidium, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, or combinations thereof, and wherein the addition of the first catalytic precursor and the pore-forming agent to the composition does not result in precipitation; (d) air drying the solution at about room temperature so as to allow an organic-inorganic material gel structure to form; and (e) removing the pore-forming agent from the organic-inorganic structure so as to yield a porous catalyst.