Influence of Molecular Weight on Structure and Catalytic Characteristics of Ordered Mesoporous Carbon Derived from Lignin

Abstract

Bio-renewable lignin has been used as a carbon source for the preparation of porous carbon materials. Nevertheless, up to now, there are few studies about the influence of molecular weight of lignin on the structure and morphology of the ordered mesoporous carbon. Here, we synthesized the ordered mesoporous carbon derived from different molecular weights of lignin and Pluronic F127. Fortunately, we found that molecular weight is an important factor for obtaining highly ordered channels, high specific surface area, and ordered mesoporous carbon. More importantly, the narrow well-defined mesoporous channel could exert a spatial restriction effect to some extent, which can serve as nanoreactors for efficient reactions and enhance catalytic performance. The highly ordered mesoporous carbon from lignin is a good candidate for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis catalyst supports.