The influence of nickel nitrate on the structure of mesoporous carbon prepared by a template method

Mesoporous carbons (MCs) were synthesized using thermosetting phenol resin as carbon precursor, commercial nanometer sized silica dioxide particles as template and nickel nitrate as additive. The pore structure as well as the crystalline structure of the as-prepared carbons before and after the addition of nickel nitrate was investigated by nitrogen adsorption and X-ray diffraction. Results indicated that the addition of an appropriate amount of nickel nitrate not only increased the BET specific surface area, but also led to the formation of graphite crystallite. At the same time, bimodal pores with the size of about 4nm and 10nm were developed by adjusting the content of nickel nitrate.