Chiral or achiral, mesoporous carbon

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10023466-B2
Application number	US-201615223075-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 29, 2016
Priority date	May 11, 2011
Publication date	Jul 17, 2018
Grant date	Jul 17, 2018

Abstract

A composition and a method for producing mesoporous carbon materials with a chiral or achiral organization. In the method, a polymerizable inorganic monomer is reacted in the presence of nanocrystalline cellulose to give a material of inorganic solid with cellulose nanocrystallites organized in a chiral nematic organization. The cellulose can be carbonized through thermal treatment under inert atmosphere (e.g., nitrogen or argon) and the silica may subsequently be removed using aqueous solutions of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or hydrogen fluoride (HF) to give the stable mesoporous carbon materials that retain the chiral nematic structure of the cellulose. These materials may be obtained as free-standing films with very high surface area. Through control of the reaction conditions the pore-size distribution may be varied from predominantly microporous to predominantly mesoporous materials. These are the first materials to use cellulose as both the structural template and carbon source for a mesoporous carbon material. These are also the first carbon materials to combine mesoporosity with long-range chiral ordering. Possible applications for these materials include: charge storage devices (e.g. supercapacitors and anodes for Li-ion batteries), adsorbents, gas purifiers, light-weight nanocomposite materials, catalyst supports (e.g., for chiral transformations), gas storage, and as a hard-template to generate other materials, preferably with chiral structures.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A mesoporous carbon having a chiral nematic organization.

2. The mesoporous carbon according to claim 1 , wherein said carbon is carbonised NCC.

3. The mesoporous carbon according to claim 1 , wherein said carbon is pyrolysed NCC.

4. The mesoporous carbon according to claim 2 , in the form of a film.

5. The mesoporous carbon according to claim 2 , in the form of a powder.

6. The mesoporous carbon according to claim 4 , wherein said film has a surface area greater than 1000 m 2 /g.

Assignees

• Fpinnovations

Inventors

• Maclachlan Mark John
• Shopsowitz Kevin Eric
• Hamad Wadood Yasser

Classifications

• C04B2235/3418

  Silicon oxide, silicic acids or oxide forming salts thereof, e.g. silica sol, fused silica, silica fume, cristobalite, quartz or flint · CPC title

• C04B35/532

  containing a carbonisable binder · CPC title

• C04B2235/48

  Organic compounds becoming part of a ceramic after heat treatment, e.g. carbonising phenol resins · CPC title

• C04B38/0022

  obtained by a chemical conversion or reaction other than those relating to the setting or hardening of cement-like material or to the formation of a sol or a gel, e.g. by carbonising or pyrolysing preformed cellular materials based on polymers, organo-metallic or organo-silicon precursors · CPC title

• C09K19/02

  characterised by optical, electrical or physical properties of the components, in general · CPC title