Superfast Synthesis of Carbon Xerogels

Carbon xerogels (CXs) provide unique opportunities for numerous applications in the areas of adsorption, separation, insulation, catalysis, and electrochemistry, but their use is hampered by time- and energy-intensive synthesis protocols. Synthesis protocols may require several days or more. Here, we report the synthesis of CXs requiring only 5 h using hydrothermal gelation and direct carbonization of the wet polymer. Drying of the polymer gel is of utmost importance for the synthesis of closely related carbon aerogels and is generally considered to be essential for the preparation of CXs. We show that skipping this step has no detrimental effect on the properties of CXs. They are identical to those obtained via conventional routes. With this "superfast" synthesis route, CXs with specific surface areas of about 700 m² g^-1 and total pore volumes up to 1.5 cm³ g^-1 are obtained very time-efficiently and without loss of performance.