Synthesis of hierarchical fiberlike ordered mesoporous carbons with excellent electrochemical capacitance performance by a strongly acidic aqueous cooperative assembly route

A strongly acidic aqueous cooperative assembly route has been developed to synthesize ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) through using the triblock copolymer P123 (EO₂₀PO₇₀EO₂₀) as a template and resorcinol/hexamine as a precursor pair. By replacing commonly used formaldehyde with hexamine as a cross-linking monomer, the self-assembly kinetics of resorcinol/formaldehyde resin and P123 can be well controlled, leading to high-quality carbon materials with 2-D hexagonal mesostructure and fiberlike morphology. The sizes and structural properties of the fiberlike carbons can be tailored easily through varying reaction parameters, such as P123 concentration and reaction temperature. A coulombic interaction between resorcinolic species and P123 is proposed to be the driving force that induces the organic-organic cooperative assembly. The additional KOH activation of the fiberlike carbons can increase significantly the surface area due to the generation of microporosity in mesopore walls while the ordered mesostructure remains intact. The structural characteristics of these fiberlike OMCs also endow them with excellent electrochemical capacitive performance. Hierarchically ordered mesostructures with microporosity can further improve the capacitive performance.