Ordered mesoporous carbons

Ordered mesoporous carbons have recently been synthesized using ordered mes oporous silica templates. The synthesis procedure involves infiltration of the pores of the template with appropriate carbon precursor, its carbonizat ion, and subsequent template removal. The template needs to exhibit three-d imensional pore structure in order to be suitable for the ordered mesoporou s carbon synthesis, otherwise disordered microporous carbon is formed. MCM- 48, SBA-1, and SBA-15 silicas were successfully used to synthesize carbons with cubic or hexagonal frameworks, narrow mesopore size distributions, hig h nitrogen Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface areas (up to 1800 m(2) g(-1)), and large pore volumes. Ordered mesoporous carbons are promisi ng in many applications, including adsorption of large molecules, chromatog raphy, and manufacturing of electrochemical double-layer capacitors.