Abstract
Polyhedral oligosilsesquioxanes (POSS), regarded as the smallest possible particles of silica, are used as carbon source and assembled into hierarchically porous carbon structures by a block copolymer-assisted method. The obtained carbon materials with high specific surface area of over 2000 m2 g-1 and large pore volume of over 1.19 cm3 g-1 possess both quite uniform micropores with the size of ~1 nm and highly ordered mesopores with the size of ~4 nm, owing to the molecular-scale templating effect of POSS siloxane cages as well as the good assembly compatibility between the block copolymers and the aminophenyl-functionalized POSS used. The mesopore arrangement can be two-dimensionally hexagonal (p6m) or body-centered cubic (Im3-m) by simply adjusting different block copolymers. Nitrogen functionalities with a relatively high content (~4 wt%) can spontaneously be incorporated into those carbon materials. Benifiting from the uniform microporosity and the nitrogen doping, the specific capacitance of the POSS-derived hierarchically porous carbons can reach ~160 F g-1 in ionic liquid electrolyte and ~210 F g-1 in 1 M H2SO4 aqueous electrolyte, when measured at a current density of 0.25 A g-1 in a symmetrical two-electrode cell. More importantly, the highly ordered mesopores can facilitate ions fast transportion to the fine micropores to achieve the excellent power performance. The hierarchial carbon sample with a hexagonal mesostructure and a high mesoporosity displays the best rate capability with 94% and 97% of capacitance retention in ionic liquid and 1 M H2SO4, respectively, with the current density range from 0.25 to 10 A g-1. By combining self-assembly strategy with rich POSS chemistry, we believe that many other hierarchical hybrid materials or carbon materials with unique electrochemical properties can be synthesized.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 255-268 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Nano Energy |
Volume | 22 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2016 |
Keywords
- Carbon
- Mesoporous materials
- Self-assembly
- Silsesquioxanes
- Supercapacitors
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Physical Chemistry and characterization(PC2)
Johan Wouters (Manager) & Carmela Aprile (Manager)
Technological Platform Physical Chemistry and characterizationFacility/equipment: Technological Platform