Porous carbons

Abstract

A method is provided for making mesoporous resin. It comprises: (a) providing a nucleophilic component which comprises a phenolic compound or a phenol condensation prepolymer optionally with one or more modifying reagents selected from hydroquinone, resorcinol, urea, aromatic amines and heteroaromatic amines; (b) dissolving the nucleophilic component in a pore former selected from the group consisting of a diol, a diol ether, a cyclic ester, a substituted cyclic ester, a substituted linear amide, a substituted cyclic amide, an amino alcohol and a mixture of any of the above with water, together with at least one electrophilic cross-linking agent selected from the group consisting of formaldehyde, paraformaldehyde, furfural and hexamethylene tetramine; and (c) condensing the nucleophilic component and the electrophilic cross-linking agent in the presence of the pore former to form a porous resin. The resin may be formed in situ by pouring the partially cross-linked resin into hot oil. Mesoporous resin beads are obtained which can be carbonised into mesoporous carbon beads.

1 . A cured porous phenolic resin having mesopores observable in carbon derived from said resin by a a pore structure of said derived carbon that comprises mesopores of diameter of 20-500 Å, as estimated by nitrogen adsorption porosimentry, the value for the differential of pore volume V with respect to the logarithm of pore radius R (dV/dlogR) for the mesopores being greater than 0.2 for at least some values of pore size in the range 20-500 Å. 
   
   
       2 . The resin of  claim 1 , having mesopores observable in carbon derived from said resin by a a pore structure of said derived carbon that comprises mesopores of diameter of 20-500 Å, as estimated by nitrogen adsorption porosimentry, the value for the differential of pore volume V with respect to the logarithm of pore radius R (dV/dlogR) for the mesopores being greater than 0.25 for at least some values of pore size in the range 20-500 Å. 
   
   
       3 . The resin of  claim 1 , having mesopores observable in carbon derived from said resin by a pore structure of said derived carbon that comprises mesopores of diameter of 20-500 Å, as estimated by nitrogen adsorption porosimentry, the value for the differential of pore volume V with respect to the logarithm of pore radius R (dV/dlogR) for the mesopores being greater than 0.3 for at least some values of pore size in the range 20-500 Å. 
   
   
       4 . The resin of  claim 1 , having mesopores observable in carbon derived from said resin by a pore structure of said derived carbon that comprises mesopores of diameter of 20-500 Å, as estimated by nitrogen adsorption porosimentry, the value for the differential of pore volume V with respect to the logarithm of pore radius R (dV/dlogR) for the mesopores being greater than 0.4 for at least some values of pore size in the range 20-500 Å. 
   
   
       5 . The resin of  claim 1 , having mesopores observable in carbon derived from said resin by a pore structure of said derived carbon that comprises mesopores of diameter of 20-500 Å, as estimated by nitrogen adsorption porosimentry, the value for the differential of pore volume V with respect to the logarithm of pore radius R (dV/dlogR) for the mesopores being greater than 0.5 for at least some values of pore size in the range 20-500 Å. 
   
   
       6 . The resin of  claim 1 , having a pore structure such that carbon derived from the resin has macropores of size above 500 Å observable by the differential of pore volume V with respect to the logarithm of pore radius R (dV/dlogR) having a value above 0.2 for pores of size 500 Å. 
   
   
       7 . The resin of  claim 1 , having a pore structure such that carbon derived from the resin has macropores of size above 500 Å observable by the differential of pore volume V with respect to the logarithm of pore radius R (dV/dlogR) having a value above 0.3 for pores of size 500 Å. 
   
   
       8 . The resin of  claim 1 , having a pore structure such that carbon derived from the resin has macropores of size above 500 Å observable by the differential of pore volume V with respect to the logarithm of pore radius R (dV/dlogR) having a value above 0.3 for pores of size 500 Å. 
   
   
       9 . The resin of  claim 1 , having a pore structure such that carbon derived from the resin has macropores of size above 500 Å observable by the differential of pore volume V with respect to the logarithm of pore radius R (dV/dlogR) having a value above 0.3 for pores of size 500 Å. 
   
   
       10 . The resin of  claim 1 , which is in the form of powder. 
   
   
       11 . The resin of  claim 10 , wherein the particle size of the powder is between 1 and 1000 μm 
   
   
       12 . The resin of  claim 1 , which is in the form of beads. 
   
   
       13 . The resin of  claim 12 , wherein the particle size of the beads is 5-2000 μm. 
   
   
       14 . The resin of  claim 1 , which is a condensation product of (a) a nucleophilic component which comprises a phenolic compound or a phenol condensation prepolymer optionally with one or more modifying reagents selected from hydroquinone, resorcinol, urea, aromatic amines and heteroaromatic amines and (b) at least one electrophilic cross-linking agent selected from the group consisting of formaldehyde, paraformaldehyde, furfural and hexamethylene tetramine. 
   
   
       15 . The resin of  claim 14 , which is a condensation product of a phenol-formaldehyde novolac. 
   
   
       16 . The resin of  claim 14 , which is a condensation product of a phenol-formaldehyde novolac and the electrophilic cross-linking agent which is hexamine.