THE FALLING CARDS MODEL FOR THE STRUCTURE OF MICROPOROUS CARBONS

Microporous and activated carbons have numerous applications ranging f rom gas absorbers to liquid decolorizers and are often called carbon m olecular sieves. Their properties depend critically on the size of the ir pores and pore openings. Their structures are very complex and have defied a description which can explain the structural changes which o ccur during the thermal or chemical treatments necessary to adjust the ir properties. Here, we present a simple qualitative model, the ''fall ing cards model'', which describes how the pore size and structure of these important materials changes with processing conditions. Comparis on to experiment shows that the model works well. This conceptual pict ure has guided our attempts to design and synthesize carbons for the l atest generation of advanced batteries and we believe it will be impor tant in other attempts to make designer carbons for advanced materials applications. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.