Fabrication of high-pore volume carbon nanosheets with uniform arrangement of mesopores

Abstract

Carbon nanosheets with a tunable mesopore size, large pore volume, and good electronic conductivity are synthesized via a solution-chemistry approach. In this synthesis, diaminohexane and graphene oxide (GO) are used as the structural directing agents, and a silica colloid is used as a mesopores template. Diaminohexane plays a crucial role in bridging silica colloid particles and GO, as well as initiating the polymerization of benzoxazine on the surfaces of both the GO and silica, resulting in the formation of a hybrid nanosheet polymer. The carbon nanosheets have graphene embedded in them and have several spherical mesopores with a pore volume up to 3.5 cm3·g–1 on their surfaces. These nuerous accessible mesopores in the carbon layers can act as reservoirs to host a high loading of active charge-storage materials with good dispersion and a uniform particle size. Compared with active materials with wide particle-size distributions, the unique proposed configuration with confined and uniform particles exhibits superior electrochemical performance during lithiation and delithiation, especially during long cycles and at high rates.