Synthesis and characterization of ordered mesoporous carbons CMK-3 produced by tailoring the mesopores of an AlSBA-15hard template synthesized without acid

Highly ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) designated CMK-3 were synthesized using mesoporous Al-SBA-15 with different textural properties as hard templates and sucrose as a carbon source. Al-SBA-15 is an ordered mesoporous alumina-silica synthesized with a soft template, P123. The effect of the aging temperature for the hard templates on the pore structure of CMK-3 was investigated. X-ray diffraction, N 2 adsorption and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the pore structures of the hard templates and the resultant CMK-3. Result indicates that CMK-3 with different pore structures can be obtained by tailoring the pore structures of the hard templates bysimply controlling the aging temperature in an acid-free medium. The best CMK-3 possessed a highly-ordered pore structure, and a very high BET surface area (1 688 m ² ·g ^-1 ) and pore volume (0. 95 cm ³ ·g ^-1 ) when the hard template was aged at 90 °C. The microporous character of the CMK-3 was related to the thickness of the mesopore wall of the hard templates. The textural characteristics of the resultant CMK-3 can be improved by simply adjusting the aging temperature in the synthesis of the hard templates to control their mesopore structure.