Control of mesoporous properties of carbon cryogels prepared from wattle tannin and furfural

Wattle tannin–furfural (TFu) carbon cryogels are synthesized by sol–gel polycondensation of wattle tannin with furfural by using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as a catalyst, dried by freeze-drying technique and then pyrolyzed under inert atmosphere, respectively. The amounts of wattle tannin (T), furfural (Fu), NaOH (C) and distilled water (W) are changed for preparing the mesoporous TFu carbon cryogels. The mole ratio of tannin to catalyst T/C plays a crucial role for the synthesis of TFu organic and carbon cryogels. The results suggest that the T/C ratio should be above 0.25 but <1.0 to prepare the mesoporous and homogeneous cryogels. Although TFu carbon cryogels have the broad mesopore size distribution, the mesoporous structure is controllable by the synthesis conditions. The carbon cryogels possess the mesopore volume less than 0.56 cm3/g and the BET surface area less than 600 m2/g. Moreover, the ratio of catalyst to water C/W can be used to prepare the homogeneous and mesoporous carbon cryogels, and to control the mesopore radius of carbon cryogels in the range of 1.6–9.6 nm.