Monolithic mesoporous carbons were prepared through a simple autoclaving method using citric acid as catalyst instead of HCl. The presence of citric acid plays an important role in determining the structural ordering of the resultant mesoporous structure due to the -COOH groups which can enhance hydrogen interaction between structural directing agent of triblock copolymer F127 and polymeric carbon precursor of resorcinol-formaldehyde resins. The obtained carbons have a hexagonal pore system, uniform pore size of similar to 5.0 nm and high BET surface area of similar to 758 m(2)/g. The prepared mesoporous carbons were used as catalyst for dehydrogenation of propane, exhibiting high catalytic activity and stability. After 50 h time-on-stream, the propane conversion of 12.1% was observed with propylene selectivity of 95.1% in the direct dehydrogenation process, while the propane conversion of 20.1% with propylene selectivity of 25.8% in oxidative dehydrogenation process. It has been found that the surface basic groups are active sites. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.