Intercalation of various organic molecules into pillared carbon Original Research Article

Intercalation of various organic molecules into pillared carbon prepared from the pyrolysis of graphite oxide silylated with methyltrichlorosilane for three times was investigated. Liquid n-alkylamine molecules with various alkyl chain lengths were intercalated into the resulting pillared carbon and the interlayer spacing increased with increasing in the alkyl chain length, until it became a constant value of 2.24 nm for chains having more than six carbon atoms. This suggests that the length of the pillar is 1.9 nm. Various organic molecules including non-polar xylene isomers and alcohol molecules can also penetrate into pillared carbon. The n-hexadecylamine molecules with a higher melting point than room temperature were intercalated into pillared carbon simply by mixing them with pillared carbons in hexane, though the interlayer spacing was smaller. The space between the layers of pillared carbon was saturated with n-hexadecylamine molecules when 1.8 molecules per 40 carbon atoms were added. The n-hexadecylamine molecules occupied 51% of the micropore volume of pillared carbon. For the intercalation of organic molecules into pillared carbon, the shorter axis of them should be smaller than 0.87 nm.