Templated nanoscale porous carbons.

ABSTRACT

This manuscript reviews key developments in the important and rapidly expanding area of templated porous carbons. The porosity covered ranges from microporous to mesoporous and macroporous carbons. Two modes of templating, using so-called hard and soft templates, are covered. In particular, for hard templating, zeolite templating generates microporous carbons, mesoporous silicates yield mesoporous carbons, while colloidal particles are replicated to large mesoporous and macroporous carbons. Soft-templating, a more recent phenomenon, mainly generates mesoporous carbons. The full range of pore sizes can therefore now be accessed using hard and soft templates to generate highly ordered nanoscale carbons with well-defined and optimised textural properties. The research area has seen rapid and important developments over the last few years, and this review aims to present the more significant advances.