Preparation of mesoporous carbon from organic polymer/silica nanocomposite

A mesoporous carbon was prepared from a carbon/silica nanocomposite. The co mposite was obtained by mean of a sol-gel process using tetraethoxy silane (TEOS) in the presence of furfuryl alcohol (FA) as a carbon precursor and t hen the silica framework was removed from the composite by HF treatment. It was found that the resultant carbon is porous, and its mesoporosity depend s on the sol-gel reaction conditions. For the production of mesoporous carb on, the amounts of both FA and acid catalyst (HCl) in the initial sol solut ion must be optimized. Under optimized conditions, the present method made it possible to develop uniform mesopores of 4 nm in diameter.