Synthesis and characterization of mesoporous graphite carbon, and adsorption performance for benzene

Abstract

In this paper, graphite carbon with a mesoporous structure was synthesized using the template–catalysis procedure with hydrated metal oxide nanoparticle as template and catalyst, phenol and formaldehyde as carbon source. XRD, Raman, BET and TEM analyses were performed to study the effluence of synthetic conditions on the structure of samples. The adsorption performances for benzene vapor were evaluated. The results show that CCo and CFe samples have mesoporous graphitized carbon structures. The molar amount of template to carbon source significantly affects the specific surface area, pore structure and adsorption–desorption performance. The specific surface area of CCo-1, with the best graphite structure, was 287.638 m2/g, the pore size was 19.075 nm, and the adsorption capacity for benzene vapor was 19.615 mmol/g. The synergistic effect between the cobalt element and graphite carbons affects the adsorption capacity of CCo-3, which was 34.643 mmol/g. However, the desorption efficiency was only 89 %, and the adsorption performance of CCo-3 material was degraded greatly after three times run.