The effect of silica template structure on the pore structure of mesoporous carbons

Abstract

We have synthesized two kinds of mesoporous carbons using a spherical silica sol (SMC1 carbon) and an elongated silica sol (SMC3 carbon) as templates. Nitrogen isotherms and electrochemical experiments were performed to investigate the effect of the silica template structure on the pore structure of the resulting mesoporous carbons. When carbons produced using the same silica to resorcinol molar ratio were compared, both nitrogen isotherms and electrochemical studies revealed that the SMC3 carbons exhibit simpler pore connectivity than SMC1 carbons.