Synthesis and properties of new nitrogen-doped nanostructured carbon materials obtained by templating of mesoporous silicas with aminosugars

The negative templating synthesis process has been applied to prepare nanostructured carbon materials with a high nitrogen content. SBA-15 silica template was impregnated with the following carbon precursors: sucrose, glucose and amino-glucose. The structure of the materials was investigated by SAXS, WAXS and TEM. Nitrogen functions were analyzed by XPS and the textural parameters of the carbons were studied by nitrogen and CO2 adsorption. X-ray and TEM studies confirmed that a pore nanostructure is inherited from the silica templates. XPS analysis showed that the nitrogen content of the materials can be controlled between 2 and 5 wt% and that N atoms are strongly bonded in the carbon structure in heterocycles or nitrile functions. An important result is that these nanostructured carbon materials exhibits interesting textural properties with BET surface areas ranging between 1000 and 1300 m(2)/g. Moreover, the study of the influence of nitrogen on the textural and structural parameters of the resulting carbon materials shows that nitrogen plays an active role during the synthesis process. This observation is also supported by the speciation of nitrogen in the nanostructured carbon materials. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.