H3PO4-assisted preparation of precursor-derived porous carbon: Construction of precursor/precursor-derived porous carbon texture properties relationship

Abstract Understanding the fuel properties of precursors/texture properties of precursor-derived porous carbons relationship has long been highly desirable. Here, different precursors were employed for synthesizing precursor-derived porous carbons using H3PO4 activation. Subsequently, the texture properties of precursor-derived porous carbons were revealed by N2 adsorption-desorption tests. Besides, the fuel properties of precursors were applied to correlate with the texture properties of their derived porous carbons. For fixed carbon, bamboo shaving (BS) being the highest, followed by olive shell (OS) and pine needle (PN). Notably, the high heating value (HHV) of BS was also the highest. The porous carbons prepared by the H3PO4 activation endow intensely developed meso/macropores. Compared with other fuel properties such as volatile, fixed carbon, and O/C, the HHV was more suitable as a general predictor of the porous carbon texture properties. The correlation yields an R2 value of 0.873 for the surface area density and HHV of the precursors. Consequently, in the present preparation conditions (the H3PO4 mass fraction, heating rate, activation temperature, and holding time were 58.10%, 10 °C/min, 550 °C, and 1 h, respectively), porous carbons with high surface area density can be predicted and target synthesis by selecting precursors with high HHV.