Carbon Materials Converted from PIM-1

Abstract

As an effort to prepare carbon nanosheet and carbon film through catalyst- and transfer free process, several research groups have reported carbonization of polymers and small molecules such as polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and a small molecular pitch extracted from petroleum. Carbon nanosheets converted from PAN or pitch were obtained through two steps: cyclization and carbonization. Because the quality of the carbon materials sensitively depends on the cyclization conditions such as temperature, ramping rate, and oxygen contents, there is a great need for a cyclization-free process. Recently, we developed a cyclization-free carbonization process (one-step process) using PIM-1 (polymer of intrinsic microporosity). Various nano-structured PIM-1s were formed by using different methods such as electrospray, ultrasonic spray pyrolysis(USP), electrospining and spin coating methods, which were carbonized at 800~1200 oC without any catalyst. All carbonized PIM-1 maintained their original shape and their Raman spectra showed G graphitic carbon peak at 1590 cm-1 and D disordered carbon peak at 1330 cm-1. Especially, it is confirmed that carbonized PIM-1 prepared by spin coating had properties similar to graphene and could be used as the electrodes of ITO-free OSCs. Carbon nanosheets converted from PIM-1 showed a high efficiency of 1.922 % and electrical conductivity of 500 S/cm. In this presentation, shape and dimension control of carbon materials and direct use as electrodes of organic solar cells and supercapacitors will be discussed more in detail.