A hard-templating route towards ordered mesoporous tungsten carbide and carbide-derived carbons

• Hexagonal and cubic ordered mesoporous tungsten carbide materials with surface areas as high as 431 m2/g.
• Ordered mesoporous tungsten carbide-derived carbons with surface areas as high as 1246 m2/g.
• Nanocasting of a tungsten chloride/sucrose precursor.
• Metal extraction from WC under full retention of the ordered pore structure.
• Materials with huge scientific interest for applications such as catalysis or as electrode materials in supercapacitor devices.

Ordered mesoporous tungsten carbide materials are synthesized via a nanocasting approach starting from hexagonal (SBA-15) and cubic (KIT-6) ordered silica templates. A tungsten chloride/sucrose precursor is converted into the desired ceramic by a thermal treatment in hydrogen and argon within the pores of the templates. The resulting materials show high BET surface areas and specific pore volumes of 431 m2/g and 0.53 cm3/g, respectively. They can be further converted to carbide-derived carbons (CDC) by metal atom extraction using hot chlorine gas. The ordered structure of the carbide matrix can be fully retained and the BET surface area and pore volume are noticeably enhanced to high values of 1246 m2/g and 1.63 cm3/g, respectively.

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