An investigation into formation mechanism of amorphous hierarchical porous carbons by diatomite as template: Effect of furfuryl alcohol and glucose

Abstract

Amorphous hierarchical porous carbons (HPCs) were successfully synthesized by vapor deposition polymerization (VDP) method with diatomite (Dt) as template. This study presents the first attempt to understand the influence of furfuryl alcohol (FA) and/or glucose (GL) on the properties of final diatomite based HPCs. Electron microscopy characterization indicated that three types of HPCs structures (disordered carbon pillars, ordered carbontubes, and discrete carbon spheres) were obtained by employing different carbon sources. When mixed FA/GL was employed as the precursor, tubular HPCs were obtained with a larger surface area and more ordered atomic order in the final amorphous structure compared to other type of HPCs. Influence of other parameters such as hydrothermal temperature and ratio of FA to GL on the structure of HPCs were also investigated. Based on the study carried out, it could be concluded that HPCs with proper carbon source, along with the optimum values of other parameters, can have a larger surface area (472.62m2/g) compared to other type of HPCs. In addition, formation mechanism of the amorphous HPCs was proposed accordingly. It can be concluded that changing synthesis conditions can affect HPCs structure and therefore can be exploited with great potential, to obtain HPCs with desirable structure.