Wood-Derived Carbons with Hierarchical Porous Structures and Monolithic Shapes Prepared by Biological-Template and Self-Assembly Strategies

Abstract

Novel wood-derived hierarchical porous carbons (HPCs) with biomimicry macro-/microporous and ordered mesostructures have been successfully prepared by using wood processing residues, such as poplar powder/or shavings, as a mimic-template to reproduce the wood cellular structures, resol as a precursor, and triblock copolymer F127 as a soft-template to construct the mesostructure onto the wood scaffold. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and N2 adsorption results indicate that the obtained HPCs not only faithfully reproduce the wood cellular structures but also possess ordered mesostructures (p6 mm) with uniform pore sizes (∼4.0 nm) and high surface areas (∼463m2/g). Furthermore, the pore texture and properties of HPCs could be regulated by simply varying the dosages of resol precursor to poplar shavings. A formation process for wood-derived HPCs with controlled hierarchical nanostructures through wood-template and interface self-assembly approaches is proposed in this work. In addition, HPCs exhibit good adsorption properties toward organic vapors, demonstrating that this kind of HPCs could be used as a promising material for adsorbents and separation systems.