Advanced Material-Oriented Biomass Precise Reconstruction: A Review on Porous Carbon with Inherited Natural Structure and Created Artificial Structure by Post-Treatment

Manufacturing of porous carbon with biomass resources is intensively investigated in recent decades. The diversity of biomass species and great variety of processing methods enable the structural richness of porous carbon as well as their wide applications. This review specifically focuses on the structure of biomass-derived porous carbon either inherited from natural biomass or created by post-treatment. The intrinsic structure of plant biomass is briefly introduced and the utilization of the unique structures at different length-scales is discussed. In term of post-treatment, the structural features of activated carbon by traditional physical and chemical activation are summarized and compared in a wide spectrum of biomass species, statistical analysis is performed to evaluate the effectiveness of different activation methods in creating specific pore structures. The similar pore structure of biomass-derived carbon and coal-derived carbon suggests a promising replacement with more sustainable biomass resources in producing porous carbon. In summary, using biomass as porous carbon precursor endows the flexibility of using its naturally patterned microstructure and the tunability of controlled pore-creation by post-treatment.