Synthesis of high surface area silica gel templated carbon for hydrogen storage application

•Mesoporous carbon with high surface area was synthesized from silica gel template.•Pyrolysis at 650 °C for 3 h gave highest surface area & pore volume.•Carbon with highest surface area of 1975 m2/g & pore volume of 3.07 ml/g was obtained.•Hydrogen uptake capacity was 0.16 wt.% at −100 °C and atmospheric pressure.

In this study silica gel templated carbons were synthesized by pyrolysis using furfuryl alcohol as carbon precursor. Effects of temperatures (650, 750 and 850 °C) and dwelling times (1, 2, 3 and 4 h) on physical properties of templated carbons were investigated. The synthesized templated carbons were studied for hydrogen uptake at atmospheric pressure and subzero temperatures (−50 and −100 °C). The surface area and pore structure of the templated carbons varied significantly with synthesis parameters. Templated carbon with highest surface area (1975 m2/g) and pore volume (3.07 ml/g) was obtained at pyrolysis temperature of 650 °C and 3 h dwelling time. For all synthesized carbons, 90–95% of the pores were in the range of 2–20 nm and 38–67% of the pores were in the range of 2–6 nm. Highest hydrogen uptake of 0.16 wt.% was observed at adsorption temperature of −100 °C for templated carbon synthesized at 650 °C and dwelling time of 3 h.