Mesoporous carbons prepared from mixtures of magnesium citrate with poly (vinyl alcohol)

Abstract

From magnesium citrate and its mixtures with poly (vinyl alcohol), mesoporous carbons were successfully obtained through their carbonization at 900°C, followed by the dissolution of MgO. A high surface area as more than 1500m2/g was obtained without any activation process, which was mainly due to mesopores with a size of about 5 nm, and mesopore volume reached 2 mL/g. Electric double layer capacitor composed of these mesoporous carbons and 1 mol/L H2SO4 electrolyte showed a high capacitance about 320 F/g with a charge-discharge current density of 20 mA/g and about 220 F/g with a high current density of 1000 mA/g. The carbons prepared showed a high adsorption ability for gasoline vapor, about 1g/g of carbon. A relatively good linear relation between adsorbed amount of gasoline vapor and pore volume with the size less than 10 nm was found.