Porous carbons derived from hypercrosslinked porous polymers for gas adsorption and energy storage

Abstract

Porous carbon materials with high surface areas were prepared using a hypercrosslinked porous organic polymer as porous precursor with potassium hydroxide activation. Nitrogen adsorption analysis revealed that the porous carbon materials have high surface area of up to 3101 m2 g-1 and high pore volume of 1.84 cm3 g-1, which can provide more accessible surface and sites for gas adsorption and electrochemical energy storage. The porous carbons with high surface area show high H2 uptake ability of up to 3.25 wt% at 77 K and 1.13 bar and CO2 uptake ability of 6.69 mmol g-1 at 273 K and 1.13 bar. The lithium ion battery fabricated from CHCPB-K-600 shows a high specific discharge capacity of 1221 mA h g−1 at 100 mA g-1, which could still retain 833 mA h g−1 after 50 cycles at 100 mA g-1. CHCPB-K-600 also exhibits a high capacitance of 379 F g-1 at 0.5 A g-1 for supercapacitor, and the capacitance retains 91.2% after 3000 cycles at 2 A g-1. Considering the high gas uptake ability, the excellent electrochemical performance, and the facile preparation strategy, these porous carbons hold a great potential for gas adsorption and energy storage.