Atomistic Structures of Zeolite-Templated Carbon

Zeolite-templated carbons (ZTCs) are a distinct class of porous framework materials in which a three-dimensional network of pores is contained between atomically thin, polycyclic hydrocarbon walls, synthesized by carbonization within a zeolite template. This class of materials arose from the goal to develop carbon-based frameworks with ordered, homogeneous microporosity (as opposed to activated carbons where the pore network is random). It has more recently been suggested that zeolite-templating may be a viable synthetic route to carbon schwarzites, an elusive class of theoretical materials with a triply periodic minimal surface and many fundamentally interesting properties. In this review, we survey the currently proposed atomistic models of ZTCs, compare them to experimental properties of ZTCs, and emphasize the significant differences that remain between actual ZTCs prepared in the laboratory and the still elusive schwarzites.