Hierarchical mesoporous carbon materials: preparation by direct tri-constituent co-assembly and the electrochemical performance

Abstract

Hierarchical mesoporous carbon materials with large microporosity were prepared by direct tri-constituent co-assembly with the use of resols as the carbon precursor, tetraethyl orthosilicate as the inorganic precursor, and triblock copolymer F127 as the soft template. Bimodal pore size distributions in the range of 1.5–4 and 7.5–12 nm were obtained in the synthesized hierarchical mesoporous carbon materials after etching of silica by HF acid, showing a high surface area of 1,675 m2 g−1 with a large pore volume of 2.06 cm3 g−1. The electrochemical performance of the hierarchical mesoporous carbons was evaluated as an electrode material for electrochemical supercapacitor, showing a specific capacitance as high as 152 F g−1 at a scan rate of 5 mV s−1 in 6 M KOH aqueous solution and a good cycling stability with capacitance retention of 99 % over 500 cycles.