Ordered porous carbon preparation by hard templating approach for hydrogen adsorption application

Abstract

The safe, affordable, and eco-friendly storage of gases is a pressing environmental concern worldwide. Porous carbon, as a widely utilized adsorbent with a broad pore size distribution spanning from small micropores to large macropores, is unsuitable for the selective adsorption of gases with very small molecular size, such as hydrogen. Although this adsorbent is relatively low-cost, ordered porous carbons offer promising advantages by leveraging the advantages of carbon-based adsorbents to achieve uniform pore size distribution and high specific surface area, enabling more selective and rapid separation while minimizing pressure drop and allowing for easy regeneration. This work reviews the use of templated ordered porous carbons produced using hard templating with commonly employed templates, such as silica, zeolites, and open framework materials such as metal organic frameworks, for hydrogen storage applications. The synthesis methods and operating parameters that impact the properties of the final product are evaluated in this study, and a brief comparison with soft-templated carbons is also provided. Based on available literature, the hydrogen adsorption properties of hard-templated carbons are explored, including effective operating conditions and parameters and the underlying adsorption mechanisms.