%0 Journal Article
%T Investigation on the Textural Properties Tuning of Ordered Mesoporous Carbons with an Excellent Electrochemical Performance
%A Pavuluri Srinivasu
%J Advances in OptoElectronics
%D 2011
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2011/615164
%X A synthetic method to produce mesoporous carbons with tunable textural properties and ordered pore structure has been developed by changing sucrose to water ratio. The specific surface area of 1437£¿m2/g with pore volume of 1.4£¿cm3/g and porosity of mesopores centered at around 4.4£¿nm are achieved by tuning the concentration of filling amount into mesoporous silica. The mesoporous carbon exhibits hexagonal rod-like morphology (a diameter of ~1.2£¿ m), which confirms that the replication process is highly successful. It is demonstrated that the prepared mesoporous carbon exhibits much higher current density and superior performance as compared to conventional activated charcoal. 1. Introduction Ordered mesoporous carbons have attracted considerable attention in the past few years due to their applications in adsorption of larger molecules, electrochemical double layer capacitor, catalyst support, fuel cells, solar cells, and hydrogen storage systems [1¨C6]. These kinds of applications require porous carbon with tailored porous structure [7, 8]. Recently, several different methods have been developed to synthesize mesoporous carbons. These include the carbonization of polymer aerogels such as resorcinol-formaldehyde resins [9], the catalytic activation of carbon precursors in the presence of metals and organometallic compounds [10, 11], and carbonization of polymer blends with thermally unstable components [12, 13]. However, these methods result in having a mesoporous carbon with broad pore size distribution. Among them, template synthesis method [14¨C17] has been extensively used due to the obtained material possessing uniform and interconnected pores. The synthesis technique is known as ¡°nanocasting.¡± This synthetic technique involves impregnation of silica template with an appropriate carbon source, carbonization of carbon precursor, and subsequent removal of silica. The resulting carbons are inverse replicas of ordered mesoporous silicas. Since the first successful synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbon (CMK-1) using MCM-48 [14], various structures have been reported from different silica templates. On the other hand, textural parameters such as surface area, pore volume, and pore diameter are found to be significantly influencing the electrocatalytic activity. In supported materials, mesoporous offers high metal dispersion and stability of nanoparticles. Although tuning the textural properties of mesoporous carbon is important for various catalytic and electrocatalytic studies, the effect of sucrose concentration on tuning the properties of mesoporous
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aoe/2011/615164/