High temperature treatment of ordered mesoporous carbons prepared by using various carbon precursors and ordered mesoporous silica templates†
Abstract
The effect of high temperature treatment of ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) under neutral atmosphere is studied for OMCs prepared by using different carbon precursors (d to I41/a. The use of the KIT-6 silica template, depending on the size of complementary pores, afforded a faithful inverse replica, CMK-8, as well as the CMK-1-type structure that underwent the aforementioned symmetry transition. The XRD patterns for the carbons studied showed that their thermal treatment led to a gradual deterioration of the carbon structure, which was associated with structure shrinking and pore walls fracturing. Particularly significant changes in the structural properties of the carbons studied occurred for those heated (graphitized) at 2400 °C, which manifested itself in a partial or complete loss of the pore volume. It was found that the CMK-1-type graphitized carbons exhibited better thermal stability, which is reflected by the presence of residual mesopores and/or