Preparation and characterization of the carbonized material of phenol–formaldehyde resin with addition of various organic substances

We prepared carbonized materials of phenol–formaldehyde resins (PF) synthesized with the addition of organic substances such as ethylene glycol (EG), 1,6-hexanediol (1,6HD), polyethylene glycol (PEG), etc. We investigated the influence of the carbonization temperature, the organic additive species, and the additive ratio in synthesizing the PF resins on the pore structure of the carbonized PFs. Variation in the length of the added organic substance caused differences in the pore sizes of the carbonized PFs; when the length was short, the pore size of the carbonized PF became gradually smaller with increasing carbonization temperature, but when the length was long, the pore size gradually increased with increasing carbonization temperature. The difference in the additive organic species gave different pore sizes in the carbonized PFs such that the longer the length of the organic additive the greater the pore size in the carbonized PF. The additive ratio of EG did not give a large change in the pore size of the carbonized PF, but the variance in the average pore sizes were sharper than that of the carbonized PF without any additives. On the other hand, the pore sizes of the carbonized PFs with a high additive ratio of PEG20K were greater, and the carbonized PFs had mesopores. The BET surface area of the carbonized PFs with a 50% additive ratio of PEG20K was about 500 m2/g.