A Porous Carbon with Excellent Gas Storage Properties from Recycled Polystyrene

In this paper, we describe the synthesis and gas adsorption properties of a porous carbonaceous material, obtained from commercial expanded polystyrene. The first step consists of the Friedel-Craft reaction of the dissolved polystyrene chains with a bridging agent to form a highly-crosslinked polymer, with permanent porosity of 0.7 cm 3 /g; then, this polymer is treated with potassium hydroxide at a high temperature to produce a carbon material with a porous volume larger than 1.4 cm 3 / g and a distribution of ultramicro-, micro-, and mesopores. After characterization of the porous carbon and determination of the bulk density, the methane uptake was measured using a volumetric apparatus to pressures up to 30 bar. The equilibrium adsorption isotherm obtained is among the highest ever reported for this kind of material. The interest of this product lies both in its excellent performance and in the virtually costless starting material

On the Gas Storage Properties of 3D Porous Carbons Derived from Hyper-Crosslinked Polymers

The preparation of porous carbons by post-synthesis treatment of hypercrosslinked polymers is described, with a careful physico-chemical characterization, to obtain new materials for gas storage and separation. Different procedures, based on chemical and thermal activations, are considered; they include thermal treatment at 380 °C, and chemical activation with KOH followed by thermal treatment at 750 or 800 °C; the resulting materials are carefully characterized in their structural and textural properties. The thermal treatment at temperature below decomposition (380 °C) maintains the polymer structure, removing the side-products of the polymerization entrapped in the pores and improving the textural properties. On the other hand, the carbonization leads to a different material, enhancing both surface area and total pore volume—the textural properties of the final porous carbons are affected by the activation procedure and by the starting polymer. Different chemical activation methods and temperatures lead to different carbons with BET surface area ranging between 2318 and 2975 m2/g and pore volume up to 1.30 cc/g. The wise choice of the carbonization treatment allows the final textural properties to be finely tuned by increasing either the narrow pore fraction or the micro- and mesoporous volume. High pressure gas adsorption measurements of methane, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide of the most promising material are investigated, and the storage capacity for methane is measured and discussed

A gas-adsorbing porous aromatic hyper-cross-linked polymer and a method of preparing thereof

The invention relates to a method of preparing a gas-adsorbing porous aromatic hyper- cross-linked polymer provided with an improved amount of ultramicropores and therefore particularly suitable to adsorb and store gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and hydrogen, and to the gas-adsorbing porous aromatic hyper-cross-linked polymer thereby obtainable

An atomistic model of a disordered nanoporous solid: Interplay between Monte Carlo simulations and gas adsorption experiments

A combination of physisorption measurements and theoretical simulations was used to derive a plausible model for an amorphous nanoporous material, prepared by Friedel-Crafts alkylation of tetraphenylethene (TPM), leading to a crosslinked polymer of TPM connected by methylene bridges. The model was refined with a trial-and-error procedure, by comparing the experimental and simulated gas adsorption isotherms, which were analysed by QSDFT approach to obtain the details of the porous structure. The adsorption of both nitrogen at 77 K and CO2 at 273 K was considered, the latter to describe the narrowest pores with greater accuracy. The best model was selected in order to reproduce the pore size distribution of the real material over a wide range of pore diameters, from 5 to 80 \uc5. The model was then verified by simulating the adsorption of methane and carbon dioxide, obtaining a satisfactory agreement with the experimental uptakes. The resulting model can be fruitfully used to predict the adsorption isotherms of various gases, and the effect of chemical functionalizations or other post-synthesis treatments. \ua9 2017 Author(s)