The Preparation of Carbon Inverse Opal from Heavy Oil

Abstract

In this study, a porous carbon with three-dimensionally ordered structures, namely, carbon inverse opals, was synthesized by using silica colloidal crystals as templates and three kinds of heavy oils as precursors, which may provide a route toward valuable products from heavy oil. The study shows that the drying process is of importance to the integrity of the framework that resulted in carbon inverse opals.

Keywords:

• Carbon inverse opal
• Drying
• Heavy oil
• Silica colloidal crystal

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank the National Key Basic Research Program of China (No. 2004CB217808, 2006CB932606) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50702077) for supporting the research.