Addressing contemporary environmental and health concerns requires reducing pollutant emissions and converting them into less harmful or valuable compounds within the framework of the circular economy. Guefoam materials offer a promising solution by enabling the capture and pre-concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), while facilitating the structuring of active phases for heterogeneous catalytic conversions. This study demonstrates the benefits of merging two newly designed electromagnetic induction-assisted ceramic matrix Guefoams into a portable integrated unit, synergizing the pre-concentration and chemical transformation of n-hexane, a VOC with special challenges. One Guefoam serves as an adsorbent, whereas the other plays a catalytic role. These Guefoams host guest phases, which consist of composite materials combining a steel core with magneto-inductive properties encased in a highly porous carbonaceous layer. This carbonaceous material undertakes a dual mission: adsorbing n-hexane from a nitrogen stream within the adsorptive Guefoam and, upon phosphorus doping in the catalytic Guefoam, orchestrating the metal-free selective dehydroaromatization of n-hexane into benzene. The design and integration of these novel Guefoam materials into a unified functional entity prove highly effective in pre-concentrating (enrichment factors up to 275) and catalyzing n-hexane with up to 84 % conversion and 94 % benzene selectivity while remaining energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable.

The present work delves into the feasibility of employing a novel structured sorbent referred to as GFAD (Guefoam Adsorption Device) for the determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in liquid samples. The chosen method has been static headspace sorptive extraction-thermal desorption gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HSSE-TD-GC-MS). The GFAD comprises an aluminum cellular material with a distinct replication structure and a solid guest phase consisting of activated carbon particles dispersed within the cavities of the cellular aluminum. The extensive specific surface area, robustness, and exceptional thermal conductivity of this pioneering material offer distinct advantages over commercially available polydimethylsiloxane-based Twister® devices. Therefore, the trapping efficiency for volatile organic compounds is enhanced, and it is possible to perform the analysis of concentrated samples. According to computational simulations, it has been demonstrated that GFAD has a high heat conductivity. As a result, the desorption efficiency is improved, and minimal temperature gradients are generated throughout the GFAD during the heating process. Besides, the energy consumption is significantly lowered, thus aligning with environmentally conscientious and sustainable analytical practices.The experimental results give a proof of the suitability of the GFAD for determining gaseous compounds in liquid samples through HSSE-TD-GC-MS. For volatile species, the new material provides higher peak areas and lower limits of detection than a commercially available Twister® device. Furthermore, the GFAD is reusable, its adsorbing properties remaining unchanged during, at least, 100 consecutive analyses. In addition, unlike to the Twister®, no intense siloxane peaks are observed in the chromatograms obtained with the GFAD. The feasibility of qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis with the new accessory has been demonstrated with both standards and a cereal bioethanol real sample.