| Summary: | Polymerization of furfuryl alcohol carried out using ZnCl<sub>2</sub> or CuCl<sub>2</sub> as Lewis acid activators was investigated by exploring various synthesis parameters in order to produce activated carbons with different porosity and metal load. The temperature of polymerization was changed according to Lewis acidity strength of the two metal chlorides: 0 °C for CuCl<sub>2</sub> and 80 °C for ZnCl<sub>2</sub>. The polymer obtained was pyrolyzed under pure He flow or under 1000 ppm O<sub>2</sub>/He flow at 600 or 850 °C in order to produce activated carbons with specific textural features. The load and nature of the residual metal after pyrolysis were determined by ICP and XRD analyses, respectively. Copper was mostly preserved even at high pyrolysis temperature in contrast to zinc, which was almost totally lost at 850 °C. A foamy structure was detected by SEM analysis for all samples. Textural properties were determined by both N<sub>2</sub> and CO<sub>2</sub> physisorption; surface areas and pore size distributions were evaluated according to BET, DFT and DR models. The polymerization activated by ZnCl<sub>2</sub> produced carbons with larger surface areas were also related to the presence of some mesopores, whereas CuCl<sub>2</sub> promoted the prevailing formation of narrow micropores, making these materials particularly suited to H<sub>2</sub> storage applications.
|
|---|