High electrocapacitive performance of bowl-like monodispersed porous carbon nanoparticles prepared with an interfacial self-assembly process

Abstract

Bowl-like monodispersed porous carbon nanoparticles (BMPCNs) have been successfully prepared with a facile and scalable approach, and the as-prepared BMPCNs are examined thoroughly by various physical characterizations. Physical measurements display that BMPCNs have the high surface area (1255m2g−1), hierarchical porosity, a certain amount of oxygen-containing groups and high graphitization degree. These unique structure features endow BMPCNs with a high capacitance (281Fg−1 at 0.5Ag−1), excellent rate capability (209Fg−1 at 50Ag−1), and outstanding cycling stability (94.8% capacity retention after 10,000 cycles at 10Ag−1) in electrochemical double-layer capacitors, suggesting its promising applications in field of energy conversion and storage. Further, the studies on formation mechanism of BMPCNs suggest that, the CTAB wormlike micelles assembling with silica/resorcinol-formaldehyde oligomers at the interface of tetraethyl orthosilicate droplets under Stöber condition determines the morphology of BMPCNs.