The enhancement of porosity of carbon xerogels by using additives

Resorcinol-formaldehyde carbon xerogels were synthesized by means of microwave heating by using precursor solutions with pH values ranging from 3 to 7 and adding various amounts of sodium sulfate, hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide and Span80. It was found that the amount of additive that can be int...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Rey Raap, Natalia, Rodríguez-Sánchez, Sandra, Díaz Alonso-Buenaposada, Isabel, Gómez Calvo, Esther, Menéndez Díaz, José Ángel, Arenillas de la Puente, Ana
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/132307
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/132307
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Microwave heating
Carbon xerogels
Porosity
Additives
Descrição
Resumo:Resorcinol-formaldehyde carbon xerogels were synthesized by means of microwave heating by using precursor solutions with pH values ranging from 3 to 7 and adding various amounts of sodium sulfate, hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide and Span80. It was found that the amount of additive that can be introduced depends to a large extent on the final pH of the precursor solution. Characterization of the porous structure of the carbon xerogels thus synthesized demonstrated that their porosity was modified by interactions between the additives and the polymeric structure of the xerogels. It is worth noting that carbonaceous materials with a pore size that could not be obtained by merely modifying the pH could be synthesized by adding different types of additive, with the result that a significant improvement of the porous properties of the carbon xerogels was achieved. The addition of sodium sulfate increased the size of the clusters and pores due to repulsive forces created between the additive and resorcinol anions. Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide gave rise to a dense branched structure with pores of a small size attributable to forces of attraction between the cations of the additive and resorcinol anions. In contrast, the presence of Span80 in the precursor solution produced a condensation reaction between the resorcinol and the additive, as a result of which the amount of resorcinol available for the sol-gel reaction was reduced.