The pore characteristics of porous carbon materials are a crucial factor for their application. Carbon cryogels, a promising porous carbon material, have interesting properties such as high specific surface area and high porosity. Chemical activation has been widely considered as an efficient method for preparing microporous activated carbon materials. In our study, we successfully prepared cryogel by a sol-gel process and various carbon cryogels containing different pore characteristics by controlling carbonization or activation process, and their pore characteristics were investigated. Cryogel, carbonized cryogels and activated cryogels consisted of interconnected spherical particles. Cryogel had a predominantly mesoporous characteristic. However, carbonized cryogels had both micropores and mesopores due to the micropore formation during carbonization. The activated cryogels had high specific surface areas (1,153 m2/g) due to their large micropore areas (1,041 m2/g), which indicated that the pore characteristics of cryogel can be converted by controlling carbonization or activation process. The study results demonstrate the promising potential of these carbon cryogels for applications as catalysts, filters, and electrochemical agents.

Morphological characterization of activated carbon cryogels from melamine-resorcinol-formaldehyde

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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