A facile synthesis of mesoporous sulfonated carbon and its structural properties

Mesoporous sulfonated carbons (SC) have been synthesized using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as a silica source and sucrose as carbon source. The synthesized SC samples were carbonized in N2 flow at various high temperatures and then passing high purity air at room temperature. In this study, we extended the idea to deposit more oxygen functional groups into the surface of SC being high micropores for the favorable adsorption applications. The resulting materials were characterized by using XRD, BET surface area, TPD, TEM, TGA and FTIR techniques. Mesoporous SC materials with controllable pore diameters are expected to be significant to future research concerning the improvement of catalysis, supercapacitors, fuel cells and adsorption.