Preparation and characterization of carbon cryogel microspheres

Carbon cryogel microspheres (CC microspheres) were successfully synthesized by an inverse emulsion polymerization of resorcinol with formaldehyde, followed by freeze drying and pyrolysis in an inert atmosphere. CC microspheres were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, elemental analysis and various gas adsorption measurements. By changing both the temperature for preparing the emulsion and pyrolysis temperature. it was possible to prepare both mesoporous microspheres and microspheres covered with ultramicroporous surfaces which pore sizes were smaller than the minimum molecular dimensions of ethane or carbon dioxide. Hydrophobicity of the obtained CC microspheres increased with the increase in pyrolysis temperature. The possibility of using the obtained mesoporous CC microspheres as column packing materials for high-performance liquid chromatography was also shown. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.