Carbon-loaded porous materials produced from fine-particle silica

Carbon-loaded porous materials have been produced by modifying inorganic matrices with pyrolytic carbon prepared via polystyrene carbonization at 750 deg C in an argon atmosphere. The matrices have been produced from silica particles about 80 nm in size, and polystyrene has been introduced either via impregnation or using polystyrene solutions as dispersion media in the fabrication of the composites. The structure and state of the carbon formed in pores of the composites have been studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results demonstrate that the pyrolytic carbon has the form of nanotubes or segmented nanospheres.