Unique Fullerene-Based Highly Microporous Carbons for Gas Storage

Abstract

Unique highly microporous carbons have been synthesized from fullerenes using common porous carbon preparation procedures such as preoxidation, carbonization, and activation. The fullerene-based carbonaceous materials in different stages of preparation were characterized using various techniques such as low-pressure and high-pressure gas adsorption, elemental analysis, X-ray diffraction, and mercury porosimetry for their physical and chemical properties. A prepared porous carbon material under optimized conditions has the following outstanding features: (i) a super high BET surface area of (ii) a high micropore (pores <20 Å) volume of (iii) a very narrow pore size distribution with pores predominantly in the range of 4-30 Å; (iv) an ultra-high carbon purity of near 100%; and (v) a relatively high packing density of up to Due to these unique properties, the fullerene-based porous carbons may be suitable for applications such as high-density (both gravimetric and volumetric) gas adsorption/storage, high-efficiency purification or polishing of gas or liquid streams, and high activity catalyst or catalyst support. It may also find applications in some special gas separation processes such as gas analysis using a chromatographic technique.