(371k) Direct Ink 3D Printing of Porous Carbons

In modern society, porous carbon has myriad applications in numerous sectors. Currently, the majority of porous carbons are available only in powdered or briquet form which may limit their application and performance. On the other hand, 3D printing is an additive manufacturing technique that can fabricate a myriad of high-resolution and three-dimensional (3D) structures, which can be designed in a computer program. 3D printing is capable of providing excellent control over both the microstructure and component distribution of the target component in the final body thereby offering an excellent industrial production technique. The 3D printing strategy of porous carbon will create a new paradigm that may provide an unprecedented ability to control the shape, structure, and composition of porous carbon-based materials that can ultimately influence their usage. The 3D printed form of porous carbon is very limited, the majority of such forms of carbon utilized very specific polymer for lithography printing or hard-templated mesoporous carbon. In this research, commercially available activated carbon was utilized as the base material, along with resorcinol-formaldehyde/surfactant and bentonite as binding agents. Upon 3D printing, the monolithic structure was pyrolyzed to yield the final carbon that possesses the bimodal distribution of microporosity and mesoporosity. The resultant 3D printed carbon was used in different gas- and liquid-phase adsorption applications.