Preparation and characterization of porous carbons obtained from mixtures of furfuryl alcohol and phenol-formaldehyde resin

Crosslinked carbon network with interconnected pores were obtained from [furfuryl alcohol (FA) + phenol-formaldehyde resin (PF)] - ethylene glycol (EG) mixtures. The effect of FA/PF weight ratio (W_F/P) on the pore structure of the porous carbons has been systematically investigated. The results showed that porous carbons with controlled pore size could be obtained by varying W_F/P in the polymer system. With W_F/P increased, the average pore size and apparent porosity increased from 11.8 to 127.7 nm and from 40.9 to 51.6%, respectively, and the pore size distribution broadened. The property change of the porous carbons was a result of polymerization dynamics change on curing of resin-glycol mixtures induced by varying W_F/P in the polymer system. Increasing the initial W _F/P led curing reactions to occur at relatively lower temperatures, and the degree of polymerization to increase after heat treatment at 150 C for 16 h, thus cured bodies with different chemical structures were obtained.