Carbon xerogels synthesized by pyrolysis of resorcinol-formaldehyde organogels

Organic gels were synthesized via the sol-gel polycondensation of resorcinol with formaldehyde in a slightly basic aqueous solution and followed by immersion in acetone and next by thermal treatment in Ar. It was found that the post-treatments of organogels with acetone before pyrolysis and the pyrolysis temperature have a major impact on porous system evolution. This way a peculiar morphology was obtained. The influence of the amount of reactants and basic catalysts used on polycondensation reaction was analyzed by comparing the surface areas of the resulted carbon xerogels. Also, scanning electron microscopy we elucidated the influence of acetone treatment on organogels and the pyrolysis temperature on the resulted carbon xerogels microstructure.