Synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbons using resorcinol-formaldehyde sol as the carbon source and as-synthesized MCM-48 as the template

Ordered mesoporous carbons were synthesized by using as-synthesized MCM-48 as the template and resorcinol (R)-formaldehyde sol as the carbon precursor. By changing the molar ratio of resorcinol (R) to template (w(R)/w(MCM-48)) and resorcinol (R) to water (w(R)/w(H₂O)), mesoporous carbons with different porosities were produced. The obtained samples were characterized by N₂ adsorption-desorption, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopye, transmission electron microscopye and thermogravimetric analysis. It is found that the optimized w(R)/w(MCM-48) and w(R)/w(H₂O) ratios are in the rang from 0.50 to 0.65 and from 0.15 to 0.35, respectively, and the resulting ordered mesoporous carbons has BET specific surface areas greater than 1125 m²/g, mean pore sizes from 2.2 to 2.4 nm, and high thermal stability.