Value Chain Analysis of Sesame in Bade and Jakusko Local Government Areas of Yobe State, Nigeria

Abstract

Unimodal and bimodal nanoporous (mesoporous) carbons have been synthesized by simply removing silica from carbon/silica nanocomposites. The sucrose/silica nanocomposites are directly prepared by the sol–gel process of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) with or without colloidal silica particles in the presence of carbon precursor molecules (i.e., sucrose). Subsequent carbonization converts the sucrose/silica nanocomposites into nonporous carbon/silica composites. Removal of the silica templates results in nanoporous carbons with high surface areas (e.g., >1500 m2/g) and pore volumes (e.g., >1.0 cm3/g). Using TEOS as the only silica source, nanoporous carbons with unimodal 2 nm worm-like pores are produced. Nanoporous carbons with bimodal 2 and 27 nm diameter pores have been prepared by using both the TEOS-derived silica network and the colloidal silica particles as templates.