Hierarchical porous carbon with graphitic structure synthesized by a water soluble template method

Hierarchical porous carbon (HPC) materials with graphitic structure, which exhibit an interesting highly developed three-dimensional porosity network of macropores in combination with meso-/micropores, have been synthesized by a water soluble template (NaCl) method combined with a metal-assisted catalytic technique at 850 degrees C. The soluble NaCl was used as a meso-porous and/or microporous structure-directing template, while glucose and Fe species were employed as carbon precursor and graphitization catalyst, respectively. Nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis showed that with increasing the mole ratio between the metal precursor and the carbon precursor from 0.005 to 0.02, the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of the HPC samples varied from 498 to 253 m(2)/g. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.