Nitrogen-doped carbons have attracted much attention due to their novel application in relation to gas storage. In this study, nitrogen-doped porous carbons were synthesized using SBA-15 as a template, polypyrrole as the carbon and nitrogen precursor, and KOH as an activating agent. The effect of the activation temperature (600–850°C) on the CO2 adsorption capacity of the obtained porous carbons was studied. Characterization of the resulting carbons showed that they were micro-/meso-porous carbon materials with a well-developed pore structure that varied with the activation temperature. The highest surface area of 1488 m2 g–1 was achieved at an activation temperature of 800°C (AC-800). The nitrogen content of the activated carbon decreased from 4.74 to 1.39 wt% with an increase in the activation temperature from 600 to 850°C. This shows that nitrogen is oxidized and more easily removed than carbon during the activation process, which indicates that C-N bonds are more easily ruptured at higher temperatures. Furthermore, CO2 adsorption isotherms showed that AC-800 exhibited the best CO2 adsorption capacity of 110 mg g–1 at 298 K and 1 bar.

The study was done to change the morphology and pore size of SBA-15 silica, and the characteristics of SBA-15 silica were investigated with TG-DSC, XRD, SEM, TEM and N2 adsorption-desorption under changing aging conditions. SBA-15 silica having a 2D-hexagonal structure was synthesized and confirmed by SEM and TEM. The structure of mesoporus silica SBA-15 showed a pore having regularly formed hexagonal structure and a passage having a cylindrical shape. This result is in good agreement with the pore forming in XRD and cylindrical shape of the structure in N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm. SBA-15 silica showed a large BET surface area of 603-698 m2/g, a pore volume of 0.673-0.926 cm3/g, a large pore diameter of 5.62-7.42 nm, and a thick pore wall of 3.31-4.37 nm. This result shows that as the aging temperature increases, the BET surface area, pore volume, and pore diameter increase but the pore wall thickness decreases. The BET surface areas in SM-2 and SM-3 are as large as 698 m2/g. However, SM-2 has a large surface area and forms a thick pore wall, when the aging temperature is 100˚C and is synthesized into stable mesoporous SBA-15 silica.

In this study, catalytic decomposition of chlorobenzene, a model compound of dioxin, was investigated. Catalysts made of a mesoporous material SBA-15 were used. The effect of Pt impregnation on the catalytic activity was evaluated. The catalysts were characterized using BET and NH₃-TPD. The catalytic activity for chlorobenzene removal reaction was shown to increase with the acid amount of catalysts. Addition of Pt to Al-SBA-15 was also shown to enhance the catalytic activity.

Ti-SBA-15 catalysts doped with samarium ion were synthesized using conventional hydrothermal method. The physical properties of Sm/Ti-SBA-15 catalysts have been characterized by XRD, FT-IR, DRS and PL. In addition, we have also examined the activity of these materials on the photocatalytic decomposition of methylene blue. The Sm/ Ti-SBA-15 was shown to have the mesoporous structure regardless of Sm ion doping. With doping amount of 1% lanthanide ion, the pore size and pore volume of Sm(Er, Cs)/Ti-SBA-15 decreased and the surface area increased. For the purpose of vibration characteristics on the Ti-SBA-15 and Sm/Ti-SBA-15 photocatalysts, the IR absorption at 960 cm-1 commonly accepted the characteristic vibration of Ti-O-Si bond. 1% of Sm/Ti-SBA-15 had the highest photocatalytic activity on the decomposition of methylene blue but the catalysts doped with Er ions had lower activity in comparison with pure Ti-SBA-15 catalyst.