Aromatic polyamides as new precursors of nitrogen and oxygen-doped ordered mesoporous carbons

Abstract Polyamides are used for the first time as precursors in the synthesis of nitrogen- and oxygen-doped ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) by applying two synthetic methods, named here as: (i) organic phase synthesis (infiltration in situ by Yamazaki reaction-based method) and (ii) solid-state thermal polymerization (liquid infiltration and thermal polymerization of the monomer into the porosity of the template). In both cases, 3-aminobenzoic acid (MABA) and SBA-15 mesoporous silica are used as precursor and template, respectively, and the infiltration takes place in one single step. In the first method, the infiltration process is accomplished in situ through Yamazaki reaction of the MABA; in the second one, the MABA monomer is introduced into the channels of the silica template by incipient wetness dissolved in a common and low polluting organic solvent. After carbonization at 900 °C and removal of the template, OMCs with very narrow pore size distributions and nitrogen and oxygen contents as large as ∼6 and 6.4–11.5 wt.%, respectively, are obtained. This work opens a new way to prepare advanced carbon materials, due to the wide variety of polyamides that can be synthesized by applying the two proposed methods to a large number of both aliphatic and aromatic precursors.