Narrow Results

A hierarchical carbon material containing nanopores (micropores and mesopores) and micrometric sized capillaries (macropores) is produced using a combination of hard and soft templates. The hard template is a polypropylene (PP) cloth which decomposes during pyrolysis leaving a macroporous structure. The soft template is a cationic polyelectrolyte which stabilizes the resorcinol/formaldehyde (RF) resin porous structure during drying to give a nanoporous RF resin. The method produces a nanocomposite of the porous RF resin with an imbibed PP cloth. The composite is then pyrolyzed in a inert gas atmosphere to render a carbon material having macropores as well as micro/mesopores. The material exhibits both a large surface area (S_BET = 742 ± 2 m²/g) due to nanopores and goof fluid permeability due to micrometric sized pores. The macropores can be oriented during fabrication. The nanoporous surface can be used to support metal nanoparticles for fuel cell while the macropores allow easy flux of gas and liquids through the monolithic material.