Facile preparation of macroporous graphitized carbon monoliths from iron-containing resorcinol–formaldehyde gels

In this report, we demonstrate the facile preparation of macroporous monolithic materials based on graphitized carbon by utilizing catalytic graphitization at relatively low temperature (1000 °C). The precursor polymer, macroporous resorcinol–formaldehyde (RF) xerogel, can be obtained without any surfactants or polymeric additives in water/ethanol mixed solvent via the sol–gel reaction accompanied by phase separation. The use of iron chloride as an acid catalyst for polymerization provides the RF monoliths incorporated with Fe, which catalyzes the graphitization. The effects of the starting composition on the morphologies of the resultant RF gels and the characteristics of the graphitized carbon monoliths have been discussed.

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► Macroporous graphitized carbon monoliths have been prepared.
► Resorcinol–formaldehyde gels containing Fe3 + were used as precursors.
► Macropores can be controlled simply by varying the ratio of water-ethanol solvent.
► Degree of graphitization can be improved by increasing the concentration of Fe3 +.