The Effect of Thermal Treatment on Porous Structure of Carbon Materials

Abstract

The article investigates the effect of thermal modification of porous carbon material (PCM), obtained by method of hydrothermal carbonization of plant products at a temperature of 750°С, on its porous structure. The implication of the low-temperature porosimetry method has shown that increase of modification temperature (from 300 to 600°С) and time (from 0.25 to 3 h) leads to substantial development of the porous structure of the initial material, accompanied by the doubling of the specific surface area, total volume growth of pores, micro- and mesopores – 2.5, 1.8 and 4.6 times respectively and doubling of the relative proportion of mesopores by the total volume of pores. The pore size distribution (PSD) analysis by means of DFT (Density Functional Theory) allowed to determine that thermal modification most efficiently promotes the development of pores 1.4 and 4 nm in diameter.