Preparation and Carbonization of Glucose and Pyromellitic Dianhydride Crosslinked Polymers

Abstract

In this work, four types of nanosponges were prepared from pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and D-glucose (GLU) with different molar ratios (1.5:1, 2:1, 2.5:1 and 3:1). The obtained PMDA/GLU nanosponges were then pyrolyzed at 800 °C for 30 min under N2 gas flow. The prepared polymeric nanosponges were investigated by FTIR spectroscopy, elemental and thermogravimetric analyses to unravel the role played by the different molar ratio of the precursors in the formation of the polymer. The pyrolyzed nanosponges were investigated by means of porosity measurements, X-ray diffraction analysis, Raman spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Notably, no significant correlation of the amounts of used precursors with the porous texture and structure was evidenced. The results corroborate that PMDA and GLU can be easily combined to prepare nanosponges and that the carbon materials produced by their pyrolysis can be associated with glassy carbons with a microporous texture and relatively high surface area. Such hard carbons can be easily obtained and shrewdly used to segregate relatively small molecules and organic contaminants; in this study methylene blue adsorption was investigated.

Keywords

• nanosponges
• glucose
• pyromellitic dianhydride
• FTIR
• elemental analysis
• TGA