Preparation of mesoporous carbon from organic polymer/silica nanocomposite

A mesoporous carbon was prepared from a carbon/silica nanocomposite. The composite was obtained by mean of a sol-gel process using tetraethoxy silane (TEOS) in the presence of furfuryl alcohol (FA) as a carbon precursor and then the silica framework was removed from the composite by HF treatment. It was found that the resultant carbon is porous, and its mesoporosity depends on the sol-gel reaction conditions. For the production of mesoporous carbon, the amounts of both FA and acid catalyst (HCl) in the initial sol solution must be optimized. Under optimized conditions, the present method made it possible to develop uniform mesopores of 4 nm in diameter.