Carbon materials with tailored porosity by self-assembly method: Influence of the synthesis conditions

A series of different carbon materials have been obtained by self-assembly method under different conditions in order to study the effect of the nature of carbon precursor, pore forming agent and catalyst concentration on the textural, chemical and structural properties of carbon materials. Results show that using hexadecanol as pore forming agent produces mesoporous carbon materials with controlled mesopore size by varying the amount of pore forming agent. Specific surface areas up to 314 m2 g−1 can be reached. The microporosity of the samples decreases with the amount of the catalyst used during the synthesis from 0.12 to 0.01 cm3 g−1. On the other hand, the use of ethylene glycol as pore forming agent gives highly microporous carbon materials independently on the synthesis conditions (i.e. 0.19 cm3 g−1). The influence of pore forming agent nature and synthesis conditions on the chemical and structural properties of carbon materials is lower. The obtained samples present an amorphous structure with a slightly higher order degree than typical activated carbons. Results show that self-assembly is a promising method to obtain carbon materials for applications, in which a control of the textural properties is required, such as energy storage applications.

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► Hexadecanol as pore forming agent produces mesoporous carbon materials.
► The mesopore size can be controlled varying the amount of the hexadecanol.
► The microporosity decreases with the amount of the catalyst.
► Ethylene glycol gives highly microporous materials.
► The influence of synthesis conditions on chemical and structural properties is low.