Adsorption and structural properties of soft-templated mesoporous carbons obtained by carbonization at different temperatures and KOH activation

Two series of phenolic resin-based mesoporous carbons were prepared by soft-templating strategy, which involves the formation of thermosetting carbon precursor by polymerization of phloroglucinol and formaldehyde in hydrophilicmesodomains of a thermally decomposable triblock copolymer used as a soft-template. It was shown that the volumes of mesopores and micropores in the resulting carbons can be tuned by varying carbonization temperature of phenolic resins in the range from 400 to 1000 degrees C followed by the post-synthesis KOH activation at 700 degrees C. The highly microporous carbons were obtained by KOH activation of phenolic resins pyrolyzed at lower temperature (similar to 500 degrees C), while high temperature KOH activation (similar to 800 degrees C) afforded microporous carbons with preserved mesoporosity. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.