Roll-to-roll fabrication of high surface area mesoporous carbon with process-tunable pore texture for optimization of adsorption capacity of bulky organic dyes

Abstract

Large-scale (multigram-to-kilogram) fabrication of soft-templated ordered mesoporous carbons (OMC) is enabled by roll-to-roll (R2R) processing via evaporation induced self assembly of Pluronic F127, oligomeric phenolic resin (resol), and tetraorthosilicate (TEOS) from ethanolic solution. The solution concentration, TEOS loading (etchable for microporous framework), and crosslinking temperature impact the pore structure. Here we demonstrate that mesoporous carbons with surface areas up to 2455 m 2 /g can be obtained under the proper processing conditions. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), smallangle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms reveal (i) supressed framework shrinkage with increasing solution concentration during casting, (ii) improved long range order and higher surface area with increasing TEOS content up to 3:1 TEOS:resol, and (iii) enhanced porosity with crosslinking at 100 ᵒC. These differences can be © 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the Elsevier user license http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ 2 explained on the basis of block copolymer thermodynamics and mechanical reinforcement by silica. This family of OMCs are effective adsorbents for bulky aqueous organic dyes, such as methylene green (MG) and methyl blue (MB), with high adsorption capacities of 0.436 g MG/g OMC and 0.378 g MB/g OMC obtained. This R2R method provides a facile method to generate significant quantities of OMCs with tunable pore textures.

Evaluating the Self-Sensing Ability of Cement Mortars Manufactured with Graphene Nanoplatelets, Virgin or Recycled Carbon Fibers through Piezoresistivity Tests

“…On the other hand, ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) is used in energy storage for battery or supercapacitor electrodes, in chemical separations as membranes or absorbents and in electrodes in solar cells [19,20].…”

Effects of Post-Synthesis Activation and Relative Humidity on Adsorption Performance of ZIF-8 for Capturing Toluene from a Gas Phase in a Continuous Mode

“…In comparison to other air pollution control technologies, adsorption-based technologies are being considered as simple, capable to manage multicomponent pollutants, efficient and cost effective process that can be used for capturing and recovering VOCs at different concentrations [11,12]. While adsorption can occur at all solid-gas interfaces, however, the capacity of adsorbents to capture the adsorbate molecules depends on the different characteristics of adsorbents including specific surface area, pore size distribution [13,14], pore volume, particle size, presence of functional groups, and a preferential affinity for the target adsorbate [15].…”

Ultra-long cycle life, low-cost room temperature sodium-sulfur batteries enabled by highly doped (N,S) nanoporous carbons

“…calcination to remove the surfactants (F127); (3) reaction of the mesoporous resol with dopants (melamine and benzyl disulfide) and conversion to doped carbon and (4) removal of silica nanoparticles to introduce micropores. This method enables the scalable fabrication of this N,S-HPC to generate single gram to more than hundred-grams in a single batch depending on the desired quantity[34,35].…”