Ordered mesoporous carbons

Ordered mesoporous carbons have recently been synthesized using ordered mesoporous silica templates. The synthesis procedure involves infiltration of the pores of the template with appropriate carbon precursor, its carbonization, and subsequent template removal. The template needs to exhibit three-dimensional pore structure in order to be suitable for the ordered mesoporous carbon synthesis, otherwise disordered microporous carbon is formed. MCM-48, SBA-1, and SBA-15 silicas were successfully used to synthesize carbons with cubic or hexagonal frameworks, narrow mesopore size distributions, high nitrogen Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface areas (up to 1800 m(2) g(-1)), and large pore volumes. Ordered mesoporous carbons are promising in many applications, including adsorption of large molecules, chromatography, and manufacturing of electrochemical double-layer capacitors.