Preparation of mesoporous carbon by phenol resin polymerization-dependent phase separation and pyrolysis

Porous carbon was prepared by technique of phenol resin polymerization-dependent phase separation and pyrolysis. The influence of catalyst amount on pore structure of porous carbon was investigated. The results show that porous carbons with average pore size of ca. 40 nm are obtained. The apparent porosity increases with increasing amount of catalyst. When the catalyst amount is 15%, apparent porosity of the porous carbon reaches 54.3%. Moreover, the carbon skeletons of the porous carbons become finer with high amount of catalyst. Volume shrinkage and gel time play important roles in changing the pore structure of porous carbons, for the porous carbons with high amount of catalyst have less shrinkage and shorter gel time during the curing.