Template derived carbons

This work focuses on tailoring the porous structure and the metal content of carbon materials using a carbonization-templating procedure. The objective of this research is to study the effects of the templates porosity and the type of metals in the carbon precursors on the surface features of template derived carbons. 

The morphology of the silica particles and their structural characteristics are preserved in the template-derived carbons, as presented in SEM images in Fig.1. The carbon replicas, are made up of spherical particles with diameters of 2-10 pm, regardless the carbon precursor. However, when copper was incorporated to the polystyrene carbon precursor, along with the carbon spheres, a bunch of metallic clusters appeared randomly dispersed at the surface of the carbon matrix. SEM micrographs show numerous particle aggregates of metal of a few nm in size. Taking into account the low reduction potential of the pair Cu (Il)/Cu, and the reductive... 

The XRD patterns for the template-derived carbons reveal that the samples obtained from sucrose as a carbon precursor have a diffraction pattern similar to that of the MSU-1, with a broad peak in the low angle range. On the other hand, application of a polystyrene-based salt as a carbon precursor leads to a strong alteration of the silica template. In all cases, the diffraction peak at the low angle range disappeared, indicating that the wormhole structure of the silica is not replicated and that the carbons posses a disordered and disorganized structure. 

Novel, inexpensive synthesis routes for producing materials with precisely controlled nanotexture must be developed to improve the performance of batteries and electrochemical capacitors, as well as to enable new electrochemical applications of carbons. Two alternatives, carbide-derived carbon (CDC) and templated carbon, have shown a promise to offer the requisite control necessary to push device performance to the next level and will be explored in this chapter. 

Bandosz, T.J., Jagiello, J., Putyera, K., and Schwarz, J.A. Pore structure of carbon-mineral nanocomposites and derived carbons obtained by template carbonization. Chem. Mater. 8, 1996 2023-2029. 

Chapter 3 Carbide-Derived Carbons and Templated Carbons.77... 

Gu, W., and G. Yushin. 2014. Review of nanostructured carbon materials for electrochemical capacitor applications Advantages and limitations of activated carbon, carbide-derived carbon, zeolite-templated carbon, carbon aerogels, carbon nanotubes, onion-Uke carbon, and graphene. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Energy and Environment 3 424-473. 

It is important to note that the commonly used term average pore size is insufficient to describe a complex pore structure, and it is even misleading for many porous materials because it does not reflect (i) the magnitude, and (ii) the modality of the pore size dispersion that is, how narrow the pore size distribution centers around one or several maxima. Only carbons with a very narrow pore size distribution, such as CNTs, some carbide-derived carbons (CDCs), and many template-produced carbons, exhibit a meaningful pore size average, whereas most activated carbons or hierarchic porous materials exhibit a much broader distribution of pore sizes. 

Kyotani, T. et al.. Carbide derived carbon and templated carbons, in Carbon Materials for Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems, Beguin, R, and Frackowiak, E., Eds, CRC Press/Taylor Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 2009, 77. 

---