Synthesis and adsorption properties of novel carbons of tailored porosity

摘要

It has recently been demonstrated that mesoporous carbons with uniform pores of tailored size can be synthesized from cost-efficient mesophase pitch and colloidal silica precursors using the colloidal imprinting (CI) method. Herein, this novel synthesis approach is discussed and compared with other available templating pathways for synthesis of mesoporous carbons. It is shown that CI allows one to obtain more uniform pores of size closer to that of the colloidal silica particles than in the case of where colloidal silica is used as a template for polymerization of carbon precursors, followed by carbonization. This indicates that aggregates rather than single silica particles act as templates in the latter procedure. A similar phenomenon may be responsible for the formation of secondary mesoporosity/macroporosity in some of colloidal-imprinted carbons.