Preparation of silica/carbon composites with uniform and well-ordered mesopores by esterification method

Silica/carbon composites with uniform and well-ordered mesopores were prepared by the newly developed esterification method, which is based on esterification of furfuryl alcohol (FA) with silanol groups on the pore walls of SBA-15-type mesoporous silica via Si-O-C linkages, followed by carbonization of the modified surface at elevated temperatures. As a reference, a typical impregnation method was employed for preparing the silica/carbon composites with various carbon contents. Thus obtained two kinds of composites were comparatively characterized by XRD, nitrogen-, water- and benzene-adsorptions, high-resolution SEM and so on. The water adsorption measurements revealed that the composites prepared by the esterification method were more hydrophobic than those by the impregnation method. The benzene adsorption measurements revealed that the total amount adsorbed on the composite prepared by the esterification method was greater than that prepared by the impregnation method. These results suggest that the carbon introduced by the esterification method would be more homogeneously distributed on the wall of the mesopores.