Effects of Carbonization Temperature and Nanoporous Silica Templating on the Synthesis of Porous Carbon from Commercial Sugar

Abstract

Porous carbons were synthesized from commercial sugar via microporous silica template method in order to control the micropore structure of carbon. The silica template used in this study had a uniform particle size, a specific surface area of 991 m2/g and an average pore size of 2 nm. The effects of carbonization temperature and the content of silica template were investigated. The results showed that the carbonization temperature of 800→C and 50%SiO2/C yielded the maximum methylene blue and iodine adsorption capacity. However, due to microporous nature, a partial dissolution of the silica template with HF solution occurred and blocked the pore entrance, reducing the adsorption capacity and specific surface area of carbon. The specific surface area as high as 1,134 m2/g was, therefore, achieved with porous carbons synthesized without nanoporous silica template.