Preparation of Mesoporous Carbon Using Phenol-Formaldehyde Resin as Carbon Precursor and Ethylene Glycol as Pore-Forming Agent

Abstract

We reported a convenient route to synthesize mesoporous carbon. The carbon was prepared in a mixture of phenol-formaldehyde resin (PF) as a carbon precursor and ethylene glycol (EG) as a pore-forming agent. The structure, morphology and the specific surface area of the obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and Quadrasorb SI sorption analyzer. The results show that the diameters of the mesoporous carbon are about 20-30 nm. It is found that the specific surface areas of the product are changed with the ratios of the value for PF/EG. The porous carbon exhibits the highest specific surface area (175.3 m 2 /g) when PF/EG is 3:7.