A commercial macrocellular polyurethane foam was used as template to fabricate macro/mesoporous silica and carbon monoliths. These materials have a cellular structure which is a faithful replica of that of the polymeric foam. In addition, they have a high surface area and a large porosity made up of accessible mesopores. The synthesis of silica monoliths was carried out by impregnating the polymeric foam with a mixture of a silica precursor and a surfactant. The carbon monoliths were prepared by using the silica monoliths as sacrificial templates. They retain the foamy vesicular structure and exhibit a high surface area of 1800 m2 g−1 and a large porosity made up of framework-confined mesopores of around 3.4 nm.

The financial support for this research work provided by the Spanish MCyT (MAT2005-00262) is gratefully acknowledged. S. Alvarez thanks the Spanish MCyT for her FPI (BES-2003-0134) grant.

4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table.-- Available online Sep 26, 2006.

Peer reviewed