Preparation of Micro-/Macroporous Carbons and Their Gas Sorption Properties

Micro-/macroporous carbons (MMCs) were prepared using a hollow mesoporous silica capsule (HMSC) as a sacrificial hard template.. The carbonization process after the infiltration of furfuryl alcohol into the template-free HMSC material afforded MMC materials in high yield. The hard template HMSC could be removed by HF etching without deteriorating the structure of MMC. The MMC materials were fully characterized by SEM, TEM, PXRD, XPS, and Raman spectroscopy. The replication processes were so successful that MMCs exhibited a hollow capsular structure with multimodal microporosity. Detailed textural properties of MMC materials were investigated by volumetric N-2 adsorption-desorption analysis at 77 K. To explore the gas sorption abilities of MMCs for other gases, H-2 and CO2 sorption analyses were also performed at various temperatures. The multimodal MMC materials were found to be good sorbents for both H-2 and CO2 at low pressure.