Received: 29 August 2019 Revised: 3 December 2019 Accepted: 10 December 2019

DOI: 10.1002/er.5106

SPECIAL ISSUE RESEARCH ARTICLE

Using electric power to synthesize resorcinol-formaldehyde

gels with enhanced characteristics

Ahmed Awadallah-F | Shaheen Al-Muhtaseb

Department of Chemical Engineering,

College of Engineering, Qatar University,
Doha, Qatar
Correspondence
Shaheen Al-Muhtaseb, Department of
Chemical Engineering, College of
Engineering, Qatar University, P.O. Box
2713, Doha, Qatar.
Email: s.almuhtaseb@qu.edu.qa
Funding information
Qatar National Research Fund, Grant/
Award Number: NPRP 08-014-2-003
Summary
A novel electrochemical approach was introduced for crosslinking resorcinol-
formaldehyde (RF) gels at room temperature without utilizing a catalyst or a
buffer. The electrochemically cross-linked gels and their subsequent activated
carbons exhibited enhanced physical properties. They were characterized via
different methods such as scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier trans-
form infrared (FTIR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and surface area
and porosity analyzer. The gels prepared with this novel approach range from
dark red to deep yellow in color; and consist of different particle sizes
depending on the used voltage. FTIR spectra showed that the gels prepared
with the novel and conventional methods have identical chemical identities.
However, the RF gels prepared with the novel approach of synthesis expose
more controllable properties such as pore structure, surface area, particle size,
etc, than those prepared with the conventional method, which makes them
easier to design for different applications. The corresponding activated carbons
showed higher surface areas and narrower micropore distributions that can be
varied easily with voltage, which is a key factor in this work as a controlling
parameter. Consequently, the approach of crosslinking gels with electric power
is important for the controlled preparation of many new and nontraditional
cross-linked gels for various applications.

KEYWORDS
activated carbon, crosslinking, electrochemical, formaldehyde, gels, resorcinol

1 | INTRODUCTION fields, including thermal, optical, electronic, catalytic,

Generally, the electrochemical synthesis or electro-
synthesis of materials is defined as the synthesis of chem-
ical compounds with the aid of electrical current in an
electrochemical cell.1 This approach of electrochemical
polymerization is expected to cover a wide range of non-
traditional materials.2,3 Since the first gel was produced
by Kistler,4 inorganic gels were studied widely in some
Ahmed Awadallah-F is on leave from NCRRT, Egyptian Atomic Energy
Authority, P.O. Box 29, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt.
and acoustic applications.5,6 Organic gels are commonly
prepared by the polycondensation of resorcinol (R) with
formaldehyde (F).7,8 These gels consist of cross-linked
networks of a polymeric segments, and are thermoset-
ting. They can also be pyrolyzed in an inert media to
manufacture carbon gels.9 Such organic and carbon gels
expose exceptional features in various applications such
as electronics, catalysis, etc.10,11 Therefore, it is better to
manufacture these gels via a low-cost and time-saving
synthesis approach. The precursors that are reported in
literature for preparing resorcinol-formaldehyde

Int J Energy Res. 2020;1–10. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/er © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1
2 AWADALLAH-F AND AL-MUHTASEB
(RF) gels are resorcinol and formaldehyde, a solvent, a
catalyst, and buffers to adjust the acidity level of the reac-
tion medium.12 Due to the importance of RF gels, they
are used in various fields such as insulations, space vehi-
cles, transport vehicles and probes, catalysts, ion
exchange, fuel storage, Cherenkov detectors, X-ray lasers,
lightweight optics, special effect optics, dielectrics for
integrated circuits, hypervelocity particle trap, capacitors,
biomaterials, drug delivery systems, etc.13 The prepara-
tion methods of RF gels still needs development direly,
especially for vital fields such as biomaterials, drug deliv-
ery systems, etc, which require high purities of their
materials. This implies avoiding impurities remaining
from initial reactants or reaction initiators in the final
products, which can cause significant negative impacts
on the anticipated functions and efficiency of these gels.
Further, reducing the manufacturing cost is a very funda-
mental requirement for the commercialization of gels.
Consequently, it is strongly required to search for a new
synthesis approach that is friendly to the environment,
inexpensive, and results in pure products to cover a wide
spectrum of fields, especially those used in biomaterials
and drug delivery agents in specific.
The objective of this work is to synthesize RF gels by
applying an electric direct current (DC). Different voltages
were applied to the solution containing the main reactants
of R and F; without using a catalyst or a buffer to adjust
the pH of the reaction media, which deems the synthe-
sized gels to be pure and clean from any contaminants
resulting from such additives or residues of unreacted spe-
cies. The outcome RF gels are characterized by different
techniques such as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR),
thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron
microscope (SEM), and surface area and porosity analysis.
2 | EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 | Materials
Resorcinol (purity 99%) and formaldehyde (37 wt% in
water containing 10%-15% methanol as stabilizer) were
supplied from Sigma-Aldrich (Germany). Ultrapure water
was supplied from an Elix70 Water Purification System
(France). HCl and NH4OH were of an analytical reagent
grade. All chemicals were used as received without any
further purifications or treatment.
2.2 | RF gel synthesis
A fixed recipe of 12.44 g of resorcinol (R) and 17.40 mL
of formaldehyde (F) in water (W) solution is utilized in
this work. This recipe corresponds to the stoichiometric
R:F molar ratio of 1:2 and an R:W molar ratio of 1:4. The
details of the conventional method for synthesizing RF
gels are found elsewhere.14 The samples synthesized by
the novel method in this work utilize the same stoichio-
metric ratios of R:F and R:W as in the conventional
method, but without catalysts or buffer solution. Further,
the polymerization was conducted in the conventional
method at ambient temperature, while it was conducted
in the conventional method at 70 C.
The apparatus used for the novel technique of synthe-
sizing RF gels with electric power (shown in Figure 1) is
simple enough to be constructed in-house at any lab. The
electrochemically-driven polymerization reaction is per-
formed in a vial (made of, eg, glass or polypropylene)
through which inert electrodes are fitted, and the ends of
the vial were sealed tightly. A constant direct current
(DC) was supplied continuously (with voltages in the
range of 0-60 V and an average current of 8.64 mA) by
using a controllable power supply (ISO-Tech DC Power
Supply IPS606D, Malta). The core reactants involve resor-
cinol dissolved in water and formaldehyde in pre-
determined molar ratios to produce cross-linked
networks of gels. A DC voltage is supplied into the mixed
solution of resorcinol and formaldehyde at ambient tem-
perature for a sufficient period of time to produce a cross-
linked gel, without needing to introduce any catalyst or
buffers to adjust the pH levels of reaction media. A reac-
tion time in the range of 1 to 3 days was required for for-
ming three-dimensional cross-linked gel networks, based
on the applied voltage. It is assumed that the direct
F I G U R E 1 A schematic diagram of the electrochemical
polymerization reaction setup
AWADALLAH-F AND AL-MUHTASEB
electric current drives the suggested polymerization reac-
tion mechanism through an electrochemical path as pro-
posed in Figure 2.15
A solvent exchange procedure is then conducted to
replace the water remaining in the pores of the formed
gels with acetone, and acetone is afterwards evaporated
as explained elsewhere.14 The outcome RF gel products
will be denoted hereafter as Gn, with the suffix number
(n) referring to the voltage applied onto the reaction
medium, ranging from 0 to 60 V (ie, resulting in G0 to
G60). Note that the blank sample “G0” corresponds to
the one synthesized by the conventional method at 70 C.
It is to be noted that resorcinol and formaldehyde can be
F I G U R E 2 A suggested reaction mechanism of the
electrochemical cross-linking reaction. It is to be noted that
resorcinol and formaldehyde can be replaced with other equivalent
reactants
3
replaced with other reactants of phenol derivatives with
formaldehyde following the same reaction mechanism.
2.3 | Shape of dried gels
It is desired generally to dry the cured gels at ambient
conditions due to the practicality of the corresponding
process. Figure 3(A) shows that when drying the gels of
G0, G6, and G9 at ambient conditions, the gels prepared
by the novel method (ie, G6 and G9) maintain their ini-
tial sizes (ie, filling the whole diameter of their con-
tainer), whereas the gel prepared by the conventional
method (G0) shrinks seriously upon drying. Figure 3
(B) also exposes that the gel prepared by the conventional
method (G0) shrinks upon drying in both the radial and
axial dimensions, whereas those synthesized with the
novel method (G6 and G9) sustain their containers’ diam-
eter (3 cm) and show less shrinkage in the axial dimen-
sion than the one prepared by the conventional
method (G0).
2.4 | Carbonization and activation
processes
The dried RF gels were placed in ceramic boats in an
electric-heated programmable tube furnace (Nabertherm
F I G U R E 3 Photos of resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) gels
synthesized by the novel and conventional methods after drying at
25 C. (A) Refers to the monolithic RF gels of G0, G6, and G9 in their
preparation containers and (B) shows the scale of dried RF gels
4 AWADALLAH-F AND AL-MUHTASEB

GmbH, Germany) with nitrogen gas flowing continu-
ously (100 cm3/min) at 0.3 bar. The furnace was firstly
kept at room temperature for 40 minutes (while flowing
nitrogen) to guarantee that air is fully purged. Then, the
furnace was heated with a heating rate of 10 C/minute
up to a temperature of 500 C, was kept at 500 C for
3 hours, and then set aside to cool spontaneously to
ambient temperature while flowing N2. The emerging
carbons were then activated in the same furnace (after
cleaning comprehensively from carbonization process
remains) while flowing carbon dioxide (150 cm3/min) at
0.3 bar instead of nitrogen gas. The samples were heated
again with a rate of 10 C/minute up to 700 C,
maintained at this temperature for 1 hour, and then
allowed to cool down to ambient temperature while
flowing carbon dioxide. After the carbonization and acti-
vation processes of the gels, the outcome products will be
named activated carbon gels14,16 and denoted hereafter as
ACn (ie, AC0 to AC60), where the suffix number n refers
to the DC voltage value (from 0 to 60 V) applied to reac-
tion media during synthesis of the precursor gels. AC0
sample refers to the activated carbon prepared from the
gel (G0) synthesized by the conventional method in the
presence of catalyst and buffer in the solution at 70 C.
exposed in Figure 2 (viz, schematic reaction mechanism).
For example, peaks at 2984, 2874, and 1479 cm−1 corre-
spond to the CH stretching groups. The peak at
1624 cm−1 correspond to stretching vibrations of the aro-
matic ring, whereas the broad peak at 3303 cm−1 indicate
the stretching vibration of the OH groups in phenol. The
appearing peaks at 1222 and 1092 cm−1 indicate the
C O C stretching vibrations of methylene ether bridges
between resorcinol molecules. On the other hand, the
peak at 1720 cm−1, which corresponds to the C O
stretching of aldehyde, was not found. Therefore, it can
be concluded that the sol-gel reaction was complete in
both the conventional and novel methods. Furthermore,
the presence of similar FTIR peaks for the gels synthe-
sized with both the novel and classical methods indicate
that they have similar chemical identities.
Figure 5 shows the TGA for the gel sample synthe-
sized with the conventional method (G0), and some of
those synthesized by the novel method, viz, G6, G12, and
G15. The results show that the gels prepared with the
novel method expose an improved thermal stability com-
pared with the one prepared with the conventional

2.5 | Characterization

FTIR spectra were measured with ATI Genesis Series

FTIR spectrophotometer using KBr pellet to ascertain the
structure of RF xerogel samples. Spectra were acquired in
wavenumbers between 4000 and 400 cm−1. TGA mea-
surements were carried out with Perkin Elmer Pyris
6 TGA-Thermogravimetric Analyzer form ambient tem-
perature up to 900 C, with a heating rate of 10 C/min
under a nitrogen atmosphere. The morphologies of gel
samples were pictured with a SEM (Philips 515). The
pore characteristics of the prepared xerogels were mea-
sured by a Micromeritics ASAP-2420 surface area and
porosity analyzer, in which the samples were degassed in
situ for 24 hours at a temperature of 473 K under vacuum
(1 × 10−4 Pa), and then N2 gas adsorption/desorption iso-
therms were measured at a temperature of 77 K. The
pore characteristics were obtained by built-in calculations
based on the density functional theory (DFT).

3 | R ES U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N

Figure 4 exhibits the FTIR spectra of RF gel samples pre-

pared by the conventional and novel methods, where all F I G U R E 4 Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of
voltages gave similar patterns. Different transmission resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) gels synthesized by the novel and
peaks prove the presence of specific functional groups conventional methods
AWADALLAH-F AND AL-MUHTASEB 5

method. For example, the weight losses of G0, G6, G12,
and G15 at 112 C are 5.37%, 4.06%, 3.04%, and 2.29%,
respectively. Also, the corresponding weight losses of G0,
G6, G12, and G15 at 364 C are 17.70%, 18.73%, 13.72%,
and 11.99%, respectively. Further, the weight losses of
G0, G6, G12, and G15 at 873 C are 57.01%, 62.29%,
55.91%, and 50.28%, respectively. More details of thermal
decomposition of these gel samples at different tempera-
tures are listed in Table 1. It can be observed in most
cases that, at the same temperature, the weight losses of
the gels prepared with the novel method decrease when
increasing the voltage, which indicates that the thermal
stability increases with increasing voltage. Moreover, the
thermal stability of the gels prepared with the novel
method is higher than those prepared by the conven-
tional method.
Figure 6 exhibits SEM photomicrographs of RF gels
prepared by both the conventional method (G0) and by
the novel method (G7, G9, G12, and G15). It was
observed that each gel sample has its different morphol-
ogy features. The gel prepared by the conventional
method (G0) tends to form a smooth surface, whereas
F I G U R E 5 Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) thermograms
of resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) gels prepared at different voltages
(G6, G12, and G15), along with the one prepared by the
conventional method (G0)
those prepared by the novel method (G7 to G15) tend to
consist of spherical particles. These particles may tend to
be more connected with each other at higher voltages.
Figure 7 exposes the effect of applied DC voltage on
the density of dried RF gels prepared by the conventional
method in presence of catalyst and buffer solutions at
70 C (0 V) and those prepared with the novel electro-
chemical method (higher voltages, up to 26 V). Overall, it
is observed that the density of RF gels increases by
increasing the applied DC voltage. The lowest density
value (0.38 g/cm3) belongs to G0, whereas the highest
density (1.39 g/cm3) belongs to G26. The results indicate
that the density of gel that produced from electrochemi-
cal approach at 26 V (ie, sample G26) is more than three
folds as that prepared by conventional method (ie, sam-
ple G0).
Figure 8A-E elaborates the N2 gas adsorption/desorp-
tion isotherms at 77 K onto the samples AC0 to AC60.
Overall, it can be noticed that the behavior of the adsorp-
tion/desorption isotherms onto the sample AC0 (ie, pre-
pared from the gel G0, which was synthesized by the
conventional method) is completely different from
adsorption/desorption isotherms behavior of AC0.1 to
AC60, which are prepared from gels synthesized by the
electrochemical method. However, all of them obey type
IV, which is characterized by its hysteresis loop.17 Such
hysteresis loops are clear for some samples and are
unnoticeable in others. The shape of hysteresis loops is a
result of various thermodynamic and/or network
effects.17,18 Table 2 shows the pore size percentages
(based on incremental surface areas) of the sample AC0,
which is prepared by the conventional method (ie, with
catalyst and buffer solution at 70 C), along with those of
the samples AC0.1 to AC60 that are prepared by the elec-
trochemical method. From Table 2, it can be said that the
change of micropore percentage between the activated
carbons prepared from the gels synthesized by the novel
method at 0.2 V can be more than twice as that prepared
by the conventional method. The mesopores of the acti-
vated carbons prepared from the gels prepared by the
electrochemical method at 0.1 V reduce significantly to
~36% of that prepared by conventional method. Further,

T A B L E 1 Weight losses of
Temperature ( C)
resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) gels at
different temperatures 112 138 180 230 295 364 499 657 748 873

Sample Weight loss (%)

G0 5.37 5.28 8.67 11.44 13.64 17.70 29.50 47.32 53.16 57.01
G6 4.06 3.83 5.27 7.155 10.89 18.73 27.85 49.54 56.67 62.29
G12 3.04 3.39 4.17 6.16 9.22 13.70 23.98 44.26 50.83 55.91
G15 2.29 2.31 2.96 4.93 7.81 11.99 22.12 40.18 46.54 50.28
6 AWADALLAH-F AND AL-MUHTASEB
F I G U R E 7 Density of dried resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) gels
synthesized by the conventional method at 0 V (sample G0) and
those synthesized by the novel method at 3 to 26 V (samples G3
through G26)
F I G U R E 6 Scanning electron
microscope (SEM)
photomicrographs of the dried
resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) gels;
synthesized by the conventional
method (G0) and by the novel
method (G7, G9, G12, and G15). The
scale bar length is 50 μm
the use of the electrochemical polymerization process at
0.4 V causes a decrement in macropores of the
corresponding activated carbons to ~55% of that prepared
by conventional synthesis.
Figure 9 shows the effect of voltage on the total sur-
face areas of activated carbons prepared from gel samples
synthesized by the conventional method and the novel
method at different voltages as estimated by the DFT
method. It was seen that the total surface area increases
significantly from 408 to 503 m2/g for the corresponding
voltage range from 0 to 0.4 V, respectively. Then it
decreases to 395 m2/g when the voltage reaches 60 V.
Thus, it can be noted that at the used conditions, a volt-
age of 0.4 V can result in the maximum surface area for
the corresponding activated carbon. Nonetheless, voltage
AWADALLAH-F AND AL-MUHTASEB
F I G U R E 8 Adsorption/desorption isotherm curves of N2 gas at 77 K onto (A) AC0, (B) AC0.1 to AC0.5, (C) AC0.6 to AC1, (D) AC3 to
AC9, and (E) AC12 toAC60
can be varied after that point to tailor the surface area at
specific lower values when needed.
Figure 10A shows the incremental surface areas of
activated carbon samples prepared from gels synthesized
with different voltages (note that a voltage of zero
denotes the conventional method). Overall, it is seen that
the activated carbons of the samples prepared with the
electrochemical route have only narrow micropores (with
pore widths ≤2 nm) and ultra-micropores (≤0.7 nm)19 as
shown in the sample “AC0.1.” Further, Figure 10A
exposes sharp pore size distributions that can be achieved
7
by using the electrochemical route and that the pore wid-
ths can be controlled through optimizing the applied DC
voltage. High incremental surface areas appear more
prominently when using low voltages than high voltages.
Figure 10B exhibits the influence of voltage on the
average pore sizes of activated carbon samples that were
prepared from gels synthesized at different voltages.
These pore size values were averaged based on the incre-
mental surface areas as derived from DFT calculations.
The results indicate that the activated carbon sample pre-
pared from the gel synthesized at 0 V (conventional
8 AWADALLAH-F AND AL-MUHTASEB

T A B L E 2 Percentages of micropores, mesopores, and

macropores of AC samples prepared from gels synthesized by the
conventional (AC0) and electrochemical method (AC0.1
through AC60)

Micropore Mesopore Macropore

Sample (%) (%) (%)
AC0 0.78 31.38 67.84
AC0.1 0.38 11.17 88.45
AC0.2 1.66 48.21 50.13
AC0.3 1.54 48.35 50.11
AC0.4 1.53 61.20 37.27
AC0.5 0.28 11.22 88.50
AC0.6 0.36 11.21 88.43
AC0.7 1.54 48.35 50.11
AC0.8 1.54 48.35 50.11
AC0.9 1.54 48.35 50.11
AC1 0.35 11.21 88.44
AC3 1.54 48.35 50.11
AC7 0.75 24.18 75.07
AC9 0.35 11.21 88.44
AC12 0.64 20.73 78.63
AC15 0.35 11.21 88.44
AC18 0.75 24.18 75.07
AC26 0.35 11.21 88.44
AC60 0.35 11.21 88.44

F I G U R E 1 0 (A) Effect of applied voltage on the incremental

surface areas of AC samples derived from gels that were prepared
with different voltages, (B) average pore sizes of activated carbon
samples prepared from gels synthesized at different voltages, and
(C) effect of applied voltage on the total pore volumes of AC
F I G U R E 9 Total surface areas of AC samples prepared from
samples prepared from different gels. Note that a voltage of zero
gels synthesized at different voltages (0 V indicates the
corresponds to the conventional method
conventional method)

method) has the highest average pore size of ~11.9 nm.
This is because the sample AC0 is mostly mesoporous
and macroporous (as presented in Table 2). Overall, the
percentage of microspore for the samples that were pre-
pared from gels synthesized by electrochemical rout are
higher than that prepared by conventional route. The
variation of average pore sizes with voltage shows that a
decrement in average pore size from ~ 11.9 to 1.4 nm for
the corresponding samples AC0 and AC60, respectively.
The average pore sizes at low voltages are slightly higher
AWADALLAH-F AND AL-MUHTASEB
F I G U R E 1 1 Effect of applied direct current (DC) voltage on
average particle size of AC samples that are prepared from gels
synthesized at different voltages (0 V indicates the conventional
method)
than those at higher voltages. Nonetheless, the average
pore widths for the activated carbons prepared from gels
crosslinked with the electrochemical method were almost
constant at 1.4 ± 1 nm.
Figure 10C exposes the relationship between the applied
DC voltage and the total pore volume of AC samples pre-
pared from gels produced by the conventional method
(AC0) and by the electrochemical route at different applied
DC voltages. Through the results, it can be noticed that the
total pore volume of the activated carbon AC0, which was
prepared from a gel synthesized by the conventional
method, was much higher than those prepared from the
gels synthesized with the electrochemical method. In other
words, the AC samples prepared by electrochemical route
have lower total pore volumes than that prepared by con-
ventional method. Overall, the total pore volume decreases
from 0.823 to 0.227 (cm3/g) for the samples AC0 and AC60,
respectively. On the other hand, the variation of total pore
volume within the voltage range from 0.1 to 60 V was small,
with an average of 0.32 ± 0.14 cm3/g. Consequently, the
passing of DC into the reaction media has a significant
effect on the outcome product.
Figure 11 shows the effect of different voltages on the
average particle sizes of activated carbons prepared from
gels synthesized at different voltages. These particle sizes
were estimated by the Micromeritics ASAP 2420 surface
area and porosity analyzer. It was seen that the average
particle size increases from ~50 to 1044 nm for the acti-
vated carbons prepared from the gel samples
corresponding to the voltage range from 0 V (conven-
tional method) to 1 V, respectively. Then it decreases to
~325 nm for AC60. The significant increment in average
particle size occurred at low voltage from 0 to 1 V. This
indicates an optimum voltage of 1 V (at the used recipe),
which can result in a maxim particle size. Moreover, par-
ticle sizes can be tailored easily at other smaller values at
higher voltages.
9
4 | CONCLUSIONS
This work tackled the synthesis of resorcinol/formalde-
hyde (RF) gels by a novel electrochemical route. For com-
parison, an RF gel sample was also prepared with a
similar molar ratio of the main reactants by the conven-
tional method in which the reactants of resorcinol and
formaldehyde were cross-linked in presence of a catalyst
and buffers at 70 C. The novel electrochemical route
implies applying a DC voltage into the reaction solution
that contains only the paramount reactants of resorcinol
and formaldehyde (in absence of catalyst or buffers) at
room temperature. The outcome of the novel method is
more environmental-friendly, with a lower cost and eas-
ier handling of the process than the conventional
method. The gels are produced without impurities due to
the absence of additives (such as initiators, catalysts, or
buffer solutions), which contaminate the final product
and restrict its applications in biomaterials and pharma-
ceuticals as vital examples needed in daily life of human
beings. The novel method of gel synthesis via utilizing
the DC widens the application scale.
The produced gels, either from conventional or from
novel methods were carbonized and activated to produce
activated carbons. The produced samples were character-
ized by different techniques such as FTIR, TGA, SEM,
and surface area and porosity analyzer. The results refer
to the density changed from 0.38 to 1.39 cm3/g for the gel
produced by the conventional method and the electro-
chemical method at 26 V, respectively. The micropore
ratios changed from 0.78% to 1.66% for the activated car-
bons resulting from gels synthesized using the conven-
tional method and the electrochemical method at 0.2 V,
respectively. The mesopore ratios changed from 31.38%
to 11.17% for the activated carbons resulting from gels
synthesized using the conventional method and the elec-
trochemical method at 0.1 V, respectively. The macropore
ratios changed from 67.84% to 37.27% for the activated
carbons resulting from gels synthesized using the conven-
tional method and the electrochemical method at 0.4 V,
respectively. Furthermore, the total surface areas chan-
ged from 408 to 503 m2/g for the activated carbons
resulting from gels synthesized using the conventional
method and the electrochemical method at 0.4 V, respec-
tively. The total pore volume decreased from 0.823 to
0.227 cm3/g for the activated carbons resulting from gels
synthesized using the conventional method and the elec-
trochemical method at 60 V, respectively. The average
particle size increased from 50 to 1044 nm for the acti-
vated carbons resulting from gels synthesized using the
conventional method and the electrochemical method at
1 V, respectively. The average pore sizes changed from
11.9 to 1.4 nm for the activated carbons resulting from
10
gels synthesized using the conventional method and the
electrochemical method at 60 V, respectively.
The results showed that the applied DC voltage has a
significant impact on the physical properties of RF gels
and their corresponding activated carbons. The gels pro-
duced by the novel method had more enhanced physical
and thermal compared with the one prepared with the
conventional method. Furthermore, the activated car-
bons produced from the gels synthesized with the novel
method consisted of narrower pores than that prepared
from the gel synthesized with the conventional method.
This novel method of synthesis enables the fabrication of
cross-linked gels and their subsequent activated carbons
and other products without remnants from catalyst or
buffer ingredients. This gives more environmental-
friendly products that can be exploited in different appli-
cations in general; and biomaterials or in-vivo materials
in specific. Therefore, this method will widen the scale of
useful applications related to such products.
ACK NO WLE DGE MEN TS
This publication was made possible by NPRP award
(NPRP 08-014-2-003) from the Qatar National Research
Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). Statements made
herein are solely responsibility of authors. Technical sup-
port from Department of Chemical Engineering, Central
Laboratory Unit (CLU) and Gas Processing Centre (GPC)
at Qatar University is also acknowledged.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors report no conflict of interest.
ORCID
Shaheen Al-Muhtaseb https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
9240-930X
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How to cite this article: Awadallah-F A, Al-
Muhtaseb S. Using electric power to synthesize
resorcinol-formaldehyde gels with enhanced
characteristics. Int J Energy Res. 2020;1–10. https://
doi.org/10.1002/er.5106