Template approaches to preparing porous carbon

In comparison with traditional porous carbon materials such as activated carbons and carbon blacks, template-synthesized carbons can more easily and controllably achieve prescribed physical, chemical, and morphological properties for a wide range of novel applications. Our review of this relatively new field has shown that templating on length scales ranging from nanometers to micrometers is readily achievable, enabling one to design and build a desired scaffold of porous carbon. Clearly, a number of issues and challenges must be addressed before such carbons find practical applications. The high cost (because of the involvement of templates such as SBA-15 and MCM-48) and environmental impact (because of the use of corrosive chemicals such as HF and NaOH) represent two key issues. Control of infiltration of carbon into template pores is also a challenge. Nevertheless, we are optimistic that such template-synthesized hierarchical porous carbon structures may soon find applications, especially in emerging high-tech areas such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and photonics.