Quantitative Control of Pore Size of Mesoporous Carbon Nanospheres through the Self-Assembly of Diblock Copolymer Micelles in Solution

Tian H, Lin Z, Xu F, Zheng J, Zhuang X, Mai Y, Feng X (2016)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2016

Journal

Pages Range: 3155-3163

DOI: 10.1002/smll.201600364

Abstract

This paper reports facile synthesis of nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon nanospheres (MCNSs) with average diameters of around 300 nm and well-controlled pore sizes ranging from 8 to 38 nm, by employing polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (PS-b-PEO) diblocks with different PS block lengths as the soft templates and dopamine as the carbon-rich precursor. For the first time, a linear equation is achieved for the quantitative control of the average pore size of MCNSs by simply adjusting a block length of diblock copolymer. The resultant MCNSs possess high surface areas of up to 450 m² g⁻¹ and nitrogen doping contents of up to ≈3 wt%. As electrode materials of supercapacitors, the MCNSs exhibit excellent electrochemical performance with high specific capacitances of up to 350 F g⁻¹ at 0.1 A g⁻¹, superior rate capability, and cycling stability. Interestingly, the specific capacitance of the MCNSs reduces linearly with increasing pore size, whereas the normalized capacitance by specific surface area remains invariable. This represents a new spectrum of the relationship between electrochemical capacitance and pore size (>5 nm) for porous carbons, which makes a complement to the existing spectra focusing on pore diameters of <5 nm.

Involved external institutions

Shanghai Jiao Tong University / 上海交通大学

China (CN)

How to cite

APA:

Tian, H., Lin, Z., Xu, F., Zheng, J., Zhuang, X., Mai, Y., & Feng, X. (2016). Quantitative Control of Pore Size of Mesoporous Carbon Nanospheres through the Self-Assembly of Diblock Copolymer Micelles in Solution. Small, 3155-3163. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201600364

MLA:

Tian, Hao, et al. "Quantitative Control of Pore Size of Mesoporous Carbon Nanospheres through the Self-Assembly of Diblock Copolymer Micelles in Solution." Small (2016): 3155-3163.

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