Novel monolithic mesoporous foamed carbons prepared using micro-colloidal particles as templates

Novel mesoporous foamed carbons were synthesized from carbonization of organic gels templated by polymer micro-colloidal particles. Resorcinol and formaldehyde were allowed to gel in dilute polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) microemulsion latex, subsequently the water in the gel was solvent exchanged with methanol and the wet gel was dried under ambient pressure. Pyrolysis was carried out at 800 °C to afford carbon xerogels with porous structures similar to those of resorcinol–formaldehyde (RF) carbon aerogels, but of higher density (>1.2 g/cm³), which provide the carbon materials with relatively higher volumetric surface area (up to 918 m²/cm³). Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) adsorption results indicate that PMMA micro-colloid particles with mean diameter 25 nm contributed to the formation of mesopores of mean diameter at 5 nm.