Controlling the Morphology of Carbon Gels

Carbon gels are unique porous carbons, which aretypically obtained through the carbonization ofresorcinol-formaldehyde gels. This material ispractically an aggregate of nanometer-sized carbonparticles. Nanopores, mostly in the size range ofmesopores, exist between the particles. Smallerpores, micropores being the majority, also exist withinthe particles. Therefore, this material has ahierarchical pore system in which short microporesare directly connected to mesopores.The precursor of carbon gels can be obtained throughsol-gel transition. Therefore there is a high possibilitythat the morphology of the resulting carbon can beeasily controlled using various molding methods.We have actually challenged the controlling of themorphology of carbon gels, and have succeeded inobtaining them in the form of disks, microspheresand microhoneycombs. Details of such carbon gelswill be reported.