Glycerol-derived Mesoporous Carbon: N2-sorption and SAXS Data Evaluation

Mesoporous carbons have been synthesized using a glycerol solution impregnated on a mesoporous silica template in the presence of a dehydrating acid. In this work, the effect of the glycerol concentration and pyrolysis temperature on the carbon structure and morphology has been investigated. The synthesized carbon samples were characterized using mainly nitrogen sorption measurements, as well as small-angle X-ray scattering method. Some additional techniques asscanning and tunneling electron microscopies, thermal gravimetric analysis, infrared spectroscopy and water sorption measurements were used to complete feature profile of the synthesized carbon samples. The analysis of the sorption isotherms and scattering intensity curves serves as the basis for calculating the textural and structural parameters of mesoporous carbon samples, namelypore size, specific surface area and pore fractal dimension. The parameters -such as surface area, pores volume and pore size - deduced from the nitrogen sorption isotherm and SAXS measurements were compared, as well as morphology and surface chemistry. It has been found out that the pore size and pore volume could be readily and independently controlled by variation of the glycerol concentration and pyrolysis temperature.