  Nanoporous carbon has been extensively used in a wide range of applications
ranging from water treatment to electrochemical applications, such as in energy
storage devices. An effort to relate structural to thermodynamical properties
has not been explored from an atomistic approach. In this work we present
numerical strategies to produce and study nanoporous carbon structures, using
molecular dynamics simulations and a many-body potential. We designed a
heating-quenching procedure in a thermodynamic region bounded by the critical,
and triple point densities of carbon to study an ensemble of 1750 atomic
arrangements produced at different densities, quench rates, and using graphite
and diamond unit cells as precursor structures. All these samples were
numerically characterized through the calculation of the free volumes, surface
areas, radial distribution functions, and structure factors. We found
particularly useful the potential energy dependence with $sp^3$ hybridization
content, to determine structural phases through clustering methods. Three
phases were related to graphite-like, sponge-like, and unstable states. We
showed that our results are compatible with available experiments and different
theoretical schemes, concluding that the use of Tersoff potential is a reliable
choice to produce nanoporous structures with low computational cost.
