A new star(ch) is born: Starbons as biomass-derived mesoporous carbonaceous materials

Porous carbon materials are present in a wide rangeof technologically important applications, includingseparation science, heterogeneous catalyst supports,water purification filters, stationary phase materials,as well as the developing future areas of energygeneration and storage applications. Hard templateroutes to ordered mesoporous carbons are wellestablished, but whilst offering different mesoscopictextural phases, the surface of the material is difficultto chemically post-modify and processing is energy,resource and step intensive. The production of carbonmaterials from biomass (i.e. sugars orpolysaccharides) is a relatively new but rapidlyexpanding research area. In this manuscript, wedescribe the preparation, properties and applicationsof a novel family of polysaccharide-derivedmesoporous carbonaceous materials derived fromrenewable resources (namely polysaccharides)denoted as Starbons .