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Organic acid-assisted soft-templating synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbons

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Abstract

A series of soft-templated ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) was synthesized by using resorcinol and formaldehyde as carbon precursors, triblock copolymer Pluronic F127 as a soft-template, and an organic acid (acetic, benzoic, citric, oxalic, or succinic) as a polymerization reaction catalyst. The aforementioned organic acids were strong enough to facilitate the formation of ordered mesophases by the block copolymer template used and to catalyze the polymerization reaction of resorcinol and formaldehyde in this template. The use of weak organic acids instead of strong inorganic acids such as HCl eliminated inorganic anions from the reaction environment and resulted in high surface area OMCs. Basically, the resulting carbons showed the surface areas and pore volumes comparable to those reported for the carbons prepared under similar conditions but in the presence of strong inorganic acids. Electron microscopy analysis proved the presence of ordered mesopores, whereas thermogravimetric analysis showed a good thermal stability of these carbons.

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Acknowledgments

MJ acknowledges the National Science Foundation for support of this research under CHE-0848352 grant. JC acknowledges the National Science Centre for support of this research under Grant UMO 2011/03/N/ST5/04444. KJ acknowledges the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Poland) for support of this research under Grant BS 038/2012. KJ—is a fellow under the program “Scholarships for Graduate Students of Majors Relevant to Regional Development” founded through Humane Capital Operational Program. The TEM data were recorded using the (cryo) TEM facility at the Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, supported by the Ohio Research Scholars Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemistry, Military Technical Academy, 00-908, Warsaw, Poland

    Jerzy Choma

  2. Institute of Chemistry, Jan Kochanowski University, 25-406, Kielce, Poland

    Katarzyna Jedynak

  3. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44242, USA

    Michal Marszewski & Mietek Jaroniec

Authors
  1. Jerzy Choma
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  2. Katarzyna Jedynak
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  3. Michal Marszewski
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  4. Mietek Jaroniec
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Correspondence to Mietek Jaroniec.

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Choma, J., Jedynak, K., Marszewski, M. et al. Organic acid-assisted soft-templating synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbons. Adsorption 19, 563–569 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-013-9479-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-013-9479-6

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