soft-templating synthesis of nanoporous carbons with...

A N N A L E S U N I V E R S I T A T I S M A R I A E C U R I E - S K Ł O D O W S K A

L U B L I N – P O L O N I A

VOL. LXIV, 18 SECTIO AA 2009

Soft-templating synthesis of nanoporous carbons

with incorporated alumina nanoparticles♣

J. Choma1, A. Żubrowska

2, J. Górka

2 and M. Jaroniec

2

1Institute of Chemistry, Military Technical Academy, 00-908 Warsaw;

e-mail: [email protected] 2Department of Chemistry, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA;

e-mail: [email protected]

Soft-templated microporous-mesoporous carbons with embedded alumina

nanoparticles were synthesized using resorcinol and formaldehyde as

carbon precursors, different inorganic acids as a catalyst and poly(ethylene

oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) block copolymer as a

soft template. The carbons studied have very good adsorption properties

such as high specific surface area, uniform pore size distribution and a large

total pore volume. The choice of catalyst seems to play an important role

for the incorporation of aluminum species to the carbon framework, which

after thermal treatment form aluminum oxide nanoparticles. This simple

approach seems to be very promising for the design of carbon-based

materials for a broad range of applications.

1. INTRODUCTION

Ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) have been found to be very attractive

materials due to their properties such as structural regularity, chemical and

thermal stability, high surface area for dispersion of catalytic nanoparticles,

electrical conductivity; and many potential applications in the fields of catalysis,

adsorption, biomedical engineering, gas and energy storage. The discovery of

OMCs in 1999 has been considered as a major breakthrough in the field of

ordered nanoporous materials [1]. The first OMC was obtained by filling the

♣This article is dedicated to Professor Roman Leboda on the occasion of his

65th birthday

annaPływające pole tekstoweDOI: 10.2478/v10063-008-0019-2

260 J. Choma, A. Żubrowska, J. Górka and M. Jaroniec

pores of ordered mesoporous silica (OMS), e.g., MCM-48 (used as a hard

template) with sucrose (used as a carbon precursor) followed by carbonization

and dissolution of the siliceous template. The hard templating (nanocasting)

became a very popular strategy for the preparation of OMCs, which in this case

are inverse replicas of the silica templates used [2-6]. The major disadvantages

of this strategy include the preparation of ordered (3D) mesoporous siliceous

hard templates and the dissolution of these templates using hazardous

hydrofluoric acid or sodium hydroxide solutions.

Recently, a simple and feasible way of preparing nanoporous carbons by self-

assembly of appropriate polymerizing organics (carbon precursors), e.g.,

phenolic resins, and triblock copolymers (soft template), e.g., Pluronic F127, has

been reported [7-8]. A controlled thermal treatment of the resulting polymer-

polymer nanocomposites is used to remove (decompose) the triblock copolymer

(soft template) leaving behind large and uniform mesopores and to carbonize the

remaining polymer (carbon precursor). The main reason for considering the soft-

templating synthesis of mesoporous carbons as a major step in carbon materials

science is due to the reduced number of preparation steps as well as to the usage

of the block copolymers, which in addition to commercial availability and

biodegradability are able to form ordered mesophases that can be used as easily

decomposable (at about 4000C) templates.

Some advanced applications of OMCs require precise control of the pore

size, pore volume and the specific surface area as well as the introduction of

different functionalities, heteroatoms and nanoparticles into mesoporous

carbons, which may cause significant changes in the properties of the resulting

materials. For instance, incorporation of magnetic metal or metal oxide

nanoparticles into hard-templated OMCs afford materials of desired surface

chemistry, which are sensitive to the external magnetic field. These properties

combined with easily accessible mesoporosity are essential to make the resulting

materials potentially useful as magnetically separable catalysts [9], catalyst

supports [10, 11], and adsorbents [12].

In the case of soft-templated carbons, one of the procedures employed for

introduction of inorganic particles involves the use of commercially available

nanoparticles during organic-organic self-assembly. Interestingly, the addition of

foreign species does not disturb the mesostructure formation and results in the

carbons with very uniform mesopores (~10 nm) and high loading of

nanoparticles (up to 50%) [13, 14]. An alternative strategy employs the addition

of inorganic salts to the reaction mixture, which under thermal treatment can be

transformed into inorganic nanoparticles embedded in the carbon matrix. The

first implementation of the aforementioned synthetic pathway was achieved by

using TiCl4 as a metal precursor, resol as a carbon precursor and triblock

copolymer as a template [15]. The resulting highly ordered mesoporous carbon-

Soft-templating synthesis of nanoporous carbons with… 261

titania nanocomposites with “bricked-mortar” frameworks possessed high

surface areas (465 m2/g), moderate pore widths (∼ 4.1 nm) and high thermal

stability (up to 7000C). More recently, the same group demonstrated a new

approach to the preparation of crystalline C-TiO2 composites [16] by using acid-

base pairs (TiCl4 and Ti(OC4H7)4) as a titanium source and phenolic resin as a

carbon precursor; this approach resulted in the carbon-titania composite with the

titania content as high as 87 wt %. The mesostructured composite consisted of

anatase nanocrystals embedded in amorphous carbon, and exhibiting good

adsorption properties such as the surface area of ~200 m2/g and the pore volume

of ~0.15 cm3/g.

Also, the soft-templated mesoporous carbons containing iridium particles

have been reported [17]. It was found that the aging time of the gel and the molar

ratio of resorcinol to formaldehyde affect not only the carbon ordering but also

the size of nanoparticles formed. This synthesis route afforded mesoporous

carbons with small (∼ 2 nm) and highly dispersed iridium particles. The catalytic

test of the resulting materials revealed their high activity toward decomposition

of N2H4.

As it was mentioned above, there is a great interest in the area of ordered

mesoporous carbons possessing magnetic frameworks due to their possible

applications, e.g., magnetic storage media [18]. Now, easy and cost effective

soft-templating synthesis of mesoporous carbons can offer a good response to

this need, in contrast to quite a fussy hard-templating method. The recently

reported “one-pot” synthesis of γ-Fe2O3-containing mesoporous carbons obtained

by the co-assembly of block-copolymer with resol and ferric citrate led to the

maghemite/carbon nanocomposites having excellent supermagnetic properties

[19]. It has been shown that the samples with low γ-Fe2O3 content (such as

9.0 wt %) possess an ordered 2D hexagonal (p6mm) structure, uniform meso-

pores (∼ 4.0 nm), high surface areas (up to 590 m2/g) and pore volumes (up to

0.48 cm3/g). Although, an increase in the γ-Fe2O3 loading caused the

corresponding decrease in the surface area and pore volume.

Another example of magnetically separable ordered mesoporous carbons with

well-dispersed nickel nanoparticles in the carbon walls was presented by Yao et

al. [20]. In this case, the Ni/OMC composites exhibited the soft ferromagnetic

behavior, where the magnetization can be tuned by changing the Ni content and

pyrolysis temperatures. Additionally, these nanocomposites have been found to

be very resistant to acid leaching, which makes them valuable in magnetic

separations. Noteworthy, this was the first report of metal-containing carbons

with a cubic structure of Im3m symmetry. Probably due to different synthesis

conditions, which govern the formation of the cubic instead of channel-like

structure, the size of Ni nanocrystals stays nearly the same (~20 nm) regardless


the Ni weight content in the sample. In contrast, the work reported by Wang and

Dai [21] shows that the average size of Ni particles increased with the metal

loading. There is some evidence that the nanoparticles can be formed in the

carbon matrix and on the outer surface of hexagonally ordered carbons as well.

Besides that, the resulting Ni-carbon composites exhibited good structural

properties such as large and uniform mesopores (~7 nm), total pore volume

(0.46-0.68 cm3/g) and high BET surface area (up to 660 m

2/g).

The idea of using salt not only for generation nanoparticles in OMCs but also

as a catalyst for hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), employed as a

mesostructure reinforcing agent, was reported by Zhou et al. [22]. Depending on

the NiCl2 concentration, the Ni-C composite obtained after silica dissolution

exhibited high specific surface area (1220 m2/g). The as-prepared Ni-C samples

served as supports for Pt nanoparticles formed under microwave conditions. The

resulting binary catalyst (consisted of metallic Ni and Pt nanoparticles) has

shown its catalytic activity in the methanol electro-oxidation reaction. Also, the

concept of using TEOS to reinforce the mesostructure formation and to improve

the overall structural parameters of samples was employed to obtain carbon-

supported ruthenium catalyst for benzene hydrogenation [23].

Here we report the soft-templated synthesis of mesoporous carbons with

alumina nanoparticles embedded in the carbon matrix. In order to obtain good

adsorption and structural parameters of alumina-carbon composites, different

acids and/or acids mixtures were investigated in terms of their catalytic activity

in the co-assembly process. The simplicity of this one-post synthesis route,

affordability of reagents and good adsorption properties of the resulting alumina-

carbons, these materials are promising for catalytic applications.

2. EXPERIMENTAL

Chemicals. Poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide)

triblock copolymer (EO106PO70EO106;Pluronic F127) was provided by BASF

Corp.; resorcinol (C6H4(OH)2; 98%); formaldehyde (HCHO; 37%); nitric acid

(HNO3; 68–70%) and aluminium isopropoxide (Al(O(CH(CH3)2)3 or Al(O-i-Pr)3;

98+%), were purchased from Acros Organics. HCl (35–38%) was acquired from

Fischer; acetic acid glacial (CH3COOH) from Mallinckrodt and ethanol (95%)

from Pharmco.

Materials. Mesoporous carbon samples were prepared according to a slightly

modified procedure of Dai et al. [24]. In a typical synthesis, 1.25 g of resorcinol

and 1.25 g of poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide)

triblock copolymer (Pluronic F127) were dissolved in 8.1 g of ethanol-water

(10:7 wt ratio) solution and stirred vigorously at room temperature. After


complete copolymer dissolution, different acids (acetic acid – A, nitric acid – N,

hydrochloric acid – C) were added to the solution as a catalyst (see Table 1). The

resulting solution was stirred for additional 30 min. Subsequently, 1.25 mL of

37% formaldehyde was added to the synthesis mixture. After 15 min., a solution

of aluminium isopropoxide was introduced to the synthesis mixture. The latter

solution was made in two different ways: (i) 0.52g of aluminium isopropoxide

was mixed with different acids (see Table 1) and then 1mL of ethanol was added

to the solution (samples without *), and (ii) solution compositions were the same

but ethanol was added before acid addition (samples with *); in the latter case a

clear solution of aluminum isopropoxide was obtained. The resulting mixture

turned to be cloudy after 1-2 hrs stirring; finally, it separated into two layers. The

polymer-rich bottom layer obtained after separation was transferred to an

autoclave and treated at 1000C for 24 h. Carbonization of the resulting film was

performed in the tube furnace under nitrogen flow using a heating rate of

20C/min up to 180

0C, keeping the sample at this temperature for 5 h, resuming

heating with 20C/min up to 400

0C and with 5

0C/min up to 850

0C, and finally

keeping the sample at 850°C for 2 h.

The final samples were labeled AC-Xy, where X indicates the acid used in the

preparation of polymer solution (N= nitric acid or C= hydrochloric acid) and y

stands for the acid used for dissolution of aluminium isopropoxide (n= nitric

acid, c= hydrochloric acid or a= acetic acid). The amounts of acids used are

listed in Table 1.

Measurements. Nitrogen adsorption isotherms were measured at -1960C using

an ASAP 2010 volumetric analyzer (Micromeritics, Norcross, GA, USA). Prior

adsorption measurements all samples were outgassed at 200°C for at least 2 h.

The molar volume of liquid nitrogen used was 34.666 cm3/mol, and the density

was 0.808 g/cm3.

Wide angle X-ray diffraction measurements were performed on a

PANalytical X’Pert PRO MPD X-ray diffraction system using Cu Kα radiation

(40 kV, 40 mA). All patterns were recorded using 0.020 step size and 4 s per step

in the range of 150 ≤ 2θ ≥ 80

0.

Thermogravimetric analysis was made using a TA Instrument Hi-Res TGA

2950 thermogravimetric analyzer from 30 to 8000C under air flow with a heating

rate of 100C/min.


Tab. 1. Amounts of acids used at different stages of the synthesis.

F127 solution Aluminium isopropoxide Sample

HNO3 (N)

or HCl (C)

mL

HNO3 (n) or

HCl (c)

mL

Acetic acid (a)

mL

AC-Nn

AC-Ca

AC-Cca

AC*-Ca

AC*-Cca

0.8

1.1

0.74

1.1

0.74

0.3

-

0.36

-

0.36

-

2.1

0.73

2.1

0.73

Calculations. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area, SBET [25] was calculated from nitrogen adsorption isotherms in the range of relative

pressures from 0.05 to 0.2 using a cross-sectional area of 0.162 nm2 per nitrogen

molecule. The single-point pore volume, Vt [26] was estimated from the volume

adsorbed at a relative pressure of ~ 0.99.

The nanoporous carbon samples studied were also analyzed using the αs-plot

[27, 28], where αs is the standard relative adsorption defined as the amount

adsorbed at a given pressure to the amount adsorbed at a relative pressure of 0.4

for the reference adsorbent. The αs-plots for the carbonaceous materials studied

were obtained by using the nitrogen adsorption data for nongraphitized Cabot

BP280 carbon black (Cabot Co., Special Blacks Division, Billerica, MA, USA)

reported by Kruk et al. [29]. The αs-plot was constructed by plotting the amount

adsorbed for the investigated sample as a function of the relative adsorption αs

for the aforementioned reference material (Cabot BP280).

The pore size distributions (PSDs) were calculated from the adsorption

branch using the Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) method [30]. The BJH method is

based on the Kelvin equation, which correlates the capillary condensation

pressure and pore diameter. In this method we used the statistical film thickness

for the Cabot BP280 carbon black [29], which was obtained by fitting the

reference isotherm on this carbon to the multilayer range of the t-curve

established on the basis of MCM-41 materials [31].

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The thermal stability of the alumina-carbon nanocomposites studied and the

alumina content were monitored by high-resolution thermogravimetry (TG). The


TG profiles recorded in flowing air are shown in Figure 1. The results indicate

that the oxidation occurred in the temperature range 470–4900C, which is

comparable to the previously reported data [13]. This suggests that the thermal

stability of samples is not affected by alumina nanoparticles in situ generated in

the carbon matrix. The residues obtained after thermal analysis revealed ~ 4%,

7% and 11% of Al2O3 in the AC-Cca, AC-Ca and AC-Nn samples, respectively.

Temperature (oC)

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Wei

gh

t (%

)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

AC-Nn

AC-Ca

AC-Cca

Fig. 1. TG profiles for the alumina-containing carbons recorded in air.

The nitrogen adsorption isotherms measured at -1960C are shown in Figure 2

and the corresponding pore size distribution (PDS) curves for all materials

studied are presented in Figure 3. The structural parameters calculated from the

nitrogen adsorption isotherms are listed in Table 2.

As can be seen from Figure 1, all carbon materials studied exhibit type IV

adsorption-desorption isotherms according to the IUPAC classification. The

capillary condensation steps appear in the range 0.5–0.9 p/po. Among all

samples, AC-Cca exhibits the highest condensation step, which corresponds to

the largest mesopore volume (0.50 cm3/g) among all samples studied (see

Table 2).


Tab. 2. Adsorption parameters for the carbon samples studied1.

Sample SBET

m2/g

Vt

cm3/g

Vmi

cm3/g

Vme

cm3/g

wBJH

nm

AC-Nn 369 0.24 0.12 0.12 6.1

AC-Ca 668 0.61 0.16 0.44 6.9

AC-Cca 632 0.71 0.18 0.50 7.8

AC*-Ca 621 0.51 0.17 0.33 6.7

AC*-Cca 611 0.50 0.17 0.32 6.0

1Notation: SBET, BET specific surface area; Vt, single-point pore volume; Vmi, volume of

micropores obtained by αs-method; Vme, volume of mesopores obtained by αs-method;

wBJH, mesopore diameter at the maximum of PSD curve obtained by the BJH method.

Relative Pressure

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

Ad

sorp

tio

n (

cm3 S

TP

g-1

)

0

100

200

300

400

AC-Nn

AC-Ca

AC-Cca

AC∗-Ca

AC∗-Cca

Fig. 2. Nitrogen adsorption isotherms for mesoporous carbons with embedded alumina

nanoparticles.

The micropore and mesopore volumes (Vmi and Vme) were evaluated using the

αs-plots shown in Figure 4. Namely, the micropore volume Vmi was calculated in

the range of αs from 0.8 to 1.2 (dashed straight line). Analogously, the total pore

volume, which is the sum of micro- and mesopore volumes (Vmi+Vme), was

estimated in the range of αs from 2 to 7 (dotted straight line). The difference

between the total and micropore volumes (Vmi+Vme)-Vmi gave the mesopore

volume. All results are summarized in Table 2.


Pore Width (nm)

0 5 10 15 20

Pore

Siz

e D

istr

ibuti

on (

cm3 g

-1 n

m-1

)

0.00

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.10

AC-Nn

AC-Ca

AC-Cca

AC∗-Ca

AC∗-Cca

Fig. 3. Pore size distributions for mesoporous carbons with embedded alumina

nanoparticles.

All Al2O3 carbon composites show quite comparable micropore volumes

(~0.17 cm3/g), except AC-Nn sample, for which the micropore volume was

found to be 0.12 cm3/g. The latter sample also possesses the lowest mesopore

volume of 0.12 cm3/g, while for the rest of the samples Vme vary to reach the

maximum value of 0.50 cm3/g for AC-Cca. It is interesting that in the case of

AC-Nn nanocomposite the total pore volume is equally contributed by micro-

and mesopores. The BET surface area (SBET) changes from 369 m2/g to 668 m

2/g

(AC-Nn and AC-Ca, respectively). As can be seen from Figure 3 showing PSDs,

the peak maxima corresponding to the mesopore diameter were found to be

~6–7 nm. However, in the case of AC-Cca, the peak attributed to mesopores is

much broader with the maximum shifted towards larger pore widths suggesting

the presence of larger mesopores. As it was mentioned above, all alumina-carbon

samples possess some microporosity which is clearly seen in Figure 3 in the

form of high and sharp peaks centered at ~1.5 nm. This microporosity can be

enhanced by additional activation as reported in [32].

In general, all carbon materials with incorporated alumina nanoparticles

exhibit mixed micro-mesoporous structure which makes them promising for

catalysis due to better mass transfer of reagents to Al2O3 nanoparticles.

The powder XRD technique was employed to examine the presence of

crystalline alumina phase in the carbons studied. The XRD pattern of Ac-Nn is

shown in Figure 5. The diffraction pattern shows (220) and (220) reflections


attributed to the cubic (Fm3m) aluminum oxide phase according to JCPDS card

number 75–0921. The average crystallite size calculated from the Scherrer

equation was found to be ~17 nm.

Standard Adsorption αs

0 1 2 3 4 5

Ad

sorp

tio

n (

cm3 S

TP

g-1

)

0

100

200

300

400

500

AC-Nn

AC-Ca

AC-Cca

AC*-Ca

AC∗-Cca

Fig. 4. αs-plot for mesoporous carbons with embedded alumina nanoparticles.

2Θ

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

* - Al2O3

*

*

Fig. 5. Wide angle XRD pattern for the alumina-containing carbon AC-Nn; non-marked

sharp peaks refer to aluminum because of using Al sample holder.


4. CONCLUSIONS

The soft-templated microporous-mesoporous carbons with in situ generated

alumina nanoparticles were successfully synthesized. The samples prepared with

nitric acid as a catalyst exhibited the largest loading of nanoparticles. Even

though the latter samples showed reduced adsorption in comparison to the

remaining samples, the micropores and mesopores contributed equally to the

total pore volume. This is especially important for applications in catalysis,

where the mass transfer is crucial for catalysts performance. The use of

hydrochloric and/or citric acids resulted in improved mesoporosity. Although the

soft-templating synthesis involving commercially available block copolymers,

phenol derivatives and formaldehyde, represent a relatively new approach to the

synthesis of carbon materials, it seems to be well suited for addition of various

species into carbons.

Acknowledgements. The authors would like to express their best wishes to

Professor R. Leboda on the occasion of his 65th birthday anniversary.

5. REFERENCES

[1] R. Ryoo, S. H. Joo and S. Jun, J. Phys. Chem. B, 103, 7743 (1999). [2] R. Ryoo, S. H. Joo, M. Kruk and M. Jaroniec, Adv. Mater., 13, 677 (2001). [3] J. Lee, S. Han and T. Hyeon, J. Mater. Chem., 14, 478 (2004). [4] H. F. Yang and D. Y. Zhao, J. Mater. Chem., 15, 1217 (2005). [5] H. Lu and F. Schüth, Adv. Mater., 18, 1793 (2006). [6] A. Vinu, T. Mori and K. Ariga, Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater., 7, 753 (2006). [7] Y. Wan, Y. Shi, D. Zhao, Chem. Mater. 20, 932 (2008). [8] Liang, Z. Li, S. Dai, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 47, 3696 (2008). [9] J. Lee, D. Lee, E. Oh, J. Kim, Y.-P. Kim, S. Jin, H.-S. Kim, Y. Hwang, J. H. Kwak, J.-G.

Park, C.-H. Shin, C.-H. Kim and T. Hyeon, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 44, 7427 (2005).

[10] A.-H. Lu, W. Schmidt, N. Matoussevitch, H. Bonnemann, B. Spliethoff, B. Tesche, E. Bill, W. Kiefer and F. Schüth, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 43, 4303 (2004).

[11] Y. Tian, G.-D. Li, Q. Gao, Y. Xiu, X.-H. Li and J.-S. Chen, Chem. Lett., 36, 422 (2007). [12] Y. L. Cao, J. M. Cao, M. B. Zheng, J. S. Liu, G. B. Ji and H. M. Ji, J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol.,

7, 504 (2007).

[13] J. Górka and M. Jaroniec, J. Phys. Chem. C, 112, 11657 (2008). [14] M. Jaroniec, J. Górka J. Choma, Zawislak A., in press. [15] R. Liu, Y. Ren, Y. Shi, F. Zhang, L. Zhang, B. Tu and D. Y. Zhao, Chem. Mater., 20, 1140

(2008).

[16] X. Qian, Y. Wan, Y. Wen, N. Jia, X. Li and D. Y. Zhao, J. Colloid Interface Sci., 328, 367 (2008).

[17] P. Gao, A. Wang, X. Wang and T. Zhang, Chem. Mater., 20, 1881 (2008). [18] T. Heyon, Chem.. Commun., 927 (2003). [19] Y. Zhai, Y. Dou, X. Liu, B. Tu and D. Y. Zhao, J. Mater. Chem., 19, 1 (2009). [20] J. Yao, L. Li, H. Song, Ch. Liu and X. Chen, Carbon, 47, 436 (2009).


[21] X. Wang and S. Dai, Adsorption, doi:10.1007/s 10450-009-9164-y. [22] J. Zhau, J. He, Y. Guo ChenX. , , T. Wang, D. Sun, D. Wang, Z. Di, J. Mater. Chem., 18,

5776 (2008).

[23] X. Ji, S. Liang, Y. Jiang, H. Li, Z. Liu and T. Zhao, Carbon, doi:10.10.16/j.carbon.2009.04.001.

[24] X. Wang, C. Liang and S. Dai, Langmuir, 24, 7500 (2008). [25] S. Brunauer, P. H. Emmett and E. Teller, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 60, 309 (1938). [26] M. Kruk and M. Jaroniec, Chem. Mater., 13, 3169 (2001). [27] S. J. Gregg and K. S. W. Sing, Adsorption, Surface Area and Porosity, 2nd edn., Academic

Press, New York (1982).

[28] M. Jaroniec and K. Kaneko, Langmuir, 13, 6589 (1997). [29] M. Kruk, M. Jaroniec and K. P. Gadkaree, J. Colloid Interface Sci., 192, 250 (1997). [30] E. P. Barrett, L. G. Joyner and P. P. Halenda, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 73, 373 (1951). [31] J. Choma, M. Jaroniec and M. Kloske, Adsorp. Sci. Technol., 20, 307 (2002). [32] J. Górka, A. Zawiślak, J. Choma and M. Jaroniec, Carbon, 46, 1159 (2008).

CURRICULA VITAE

Jerzy Choma was born in 1952 in Lublin, Poland. He

studied chemistry at the Military Technical Academy in

Warsaw and graduated in 1978. He obtained his PhD and

ScD degrees in 1981 and 1985, respectively. He received

a professor title in 1993 and is a full professor in the

Chemistry Department of the Military Technical

Academy in Warsaw and the Institute of Chemistry of

J. Kochanowski University in Kielce. In the latter he is

the Head of the Department of Physical Chemistry. His

major scientific interests include experimental and

theoretical studies of gas adsorption on microporous and

mesoporous adsorbents, adsorption characterization of

activated carbons, ordered mesoporous silicas (OMSs) and carbons, synthesis and

modification of activated carbons and OMSs such as MCM-41, MCM-48 and SBA-15.

Currently his group is working on the soft- and hard-templating syntheses of ordered

mesoporous carbons. He authored or co-authored about 300 scientific articles, over 100

conference presentations, two books and several review articles. Since 1986 he has had a

fruitful collaboration with Professor M. Jaroniec from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio,

USA.


Anna Żubrowska was born in 1984 in Lublin, Poland. In

2008 she graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry of

Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. At present,

she is a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry,

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA. Main areas of

her scientific interests include the synthesis, modification

and characterization of ordered mesoporous materials,

especially carbons.

Joanna Górka was born in 1980 in Lublin. She obtained

MSc in Chemistry in 2004 from Maria Curie-Skłodowska

University in Lublin and is currently pursuing the Ph.D. in

Physical Chemistry at Kent State University with

Professor Mietek Jaroniec. Her research interests include

the self-assembly synthesis, characterization and

adsorption properties of ordered mesoporous carbons,

polymers, silica and organosilicas as well as properties of

block copolymers, which are used as soft templates for the

preparation of the aforementioned nanomaterials.

Mieczysław Jaroniec was born in 1949 in Okrzeja,

Poland. He studied chemistry at Maria Curie-Skłodowska

University (UMCS) in Lublin, Poland, between 1967 and

1972. After graduating with honors in 1972, he was

employed at UMCS and joined the Department of

Physical Chemistry, and in 1975, he moved to the newly

created Department of Theoretical Chemistry. He

presented his PhD dissertation prepared under the

supervision of Professor W. Rudzinski in 1976. In 1985

and 1989 he received both professor titles. In 1991 he

moved to Kent State University, Ohio, where has been

employed as a professor since then.


Professor Jaroniec has had several visiting appointments, including Georgetown

University, USA (1984-85), McMaster University, Canada (1985-86), Kent State

University, USA (1987, 1988-89), and Chiba University, Japan (1997). He has published

over 850 papers in the area of adsorption, chromatography, thermal analysis, nanoporous

materials, and self-assembled ordered mesoporous materials, and has been a co-chairman

of four international symposia on nanoporous materials held in Canada in 2000, 2002,

2005 and 2008. In addition, he has co-edited three volumes of Nanoporous Materials,

published in the Elsevier series of Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis. The fourth

volume of “Nanoporous Materials” has been published by World Sci. Publishers in 2008.

Also, he co-edited a special issue of Chemistry Materials devoted to templated materials

(Feb 2008), edited a special volume of the Journal of Liquid Chromatography (1996),

dedicated to the synthesis, characterization, and application of chemically bonded phases,

and co-authored a book Physical Adsorption on Heterogeneous Solids, published by

Elsevier in 1988. Professor Jaroniec has served and is currently serving on the editorial

boards of Adsorption, Adsorption Science & Technology, Chemistry Materials, Journal

of Liquid Chromatography, Journal of Porous Materials, Dekker Encyclopedia of

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Journal of Colloid and Interfacial Science, Thin Solid

Films, and Heterogeneous Chemistry Reviews. Among the numerous awards he has

received, he cherishes especially an Honorary Professor title of M. Curie-Skłodowska

University, Poland (2005), doctor honoris causa from Copernicus University, Poland

(2009) and a Distinguished Scholar Award from Kent State University (2002).

Research interests and activities of Professor Jaroniec revolve primarily around

interdisciplinary topics of interfacial chemistry, chemical separations, and chemistry of

materials, especially physical adsorption at the gas/solid and liquid/solid interfaces, gas

and liquid chromatography, synthesis, modification, and characterization of adsorbents,

chromatographic packings, catalysts, and most recently, ordered nanoporous materials.

During his employment at Kent State University, he has established a vigorous research

program in the area of advanced nanomaterials, such as surfactant- and polymer-

templated ordered mesoporous silicas, organosilicas, and carbons.

soft-templating synthesis of nanoporous carbons with...

Documents