Synthesis of large pore sized ordered mesoporous carbons using triconstituent self-assembly strategy under different acidic conditions and ratios of carbon precursor to structure directing agent

Abstract

This study was aimed at the synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbons with large pores. A triconstituent self-assembly strategy was employed, where resorcinol and formaldehyde were used as carbon source, tetraethyl orthosilicate was used as silica source, and triblock copolymer Pluronic F127 was used as structure directing agent. The effects of hydrochloric acid (HCl) concentration on the composite yield and the textural properties of carbons were investigated. The composite yield was seen to increase until a HCl concentration of 0.66 M. The effect of carbon source (resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF)) to Pluronic F127 ratio (RF/F127) was also investigated. The pore sizes slightly varied around 6 nm at low RF/F127 ratios, while the RF/127 = 2 ratio gave a 8.1-nm pore size and 711-m2/g surface area. The resultant carbons are promising for use in areas such as fuel cells, where diffusion limitations affect the performance.