日本ゼオライト学会　刊行物 Publication of Japan Zeolite Association

The synthesis of porous carbonaceous materials utilizing hydrothermal carbonization from sugar carbon precursors is discussed. Introduction of hard or soft templating during carbon network formation from sugar occurring under hydrothermal conditions allows for the introduction of well-defined porosity into the final carbonaceous materials.

In hard templating, infiltration of precursor / intermediate into the pores of an inorganic solid template under hydrothermal conditions and subsequent template removal yields a porous carbon replica with surface functionality-rich properties. However, rather direct relationship between the nanostructures of the template and replica and the resulting dependence of the final nanostructure on the nature of the pores of the parent inorganic solid can somewhat limit the possibilities for facile structural control.

In soft templating, assemblies of e.g., amphiphilic polymers are used as a template, allowing in-situ nanostructuring. Porous carbons with ordered nanostructure can be produced using a block copolymer template, while parallel usage of block copolymer and a latex dispersion can lead to the formation of a hierarchical nanostructure with trimodal porosity exhibiting a surface area of up to 800 m² g⁻¹ or pore volume of up to 1 cm³ g⁻¹. Through variation of hydrothermal synthesis parameters（e.g., hydrothermal temperature），this approach allows for a degree of tuning of nanostructural properties such as pore size and pore wall thickness / texture.