Pseudo metal-organic coordination derived one-step carbonization of non-carbonizable carboxylate organic molecules toward functional mesostructured porous carbons

Abstract

The desire for multivariable applications has encouraged extensive study to exploit multi-functional carbon materials owing to their superior physicochemical properties, wide availability, and massive productivity. In particular, the design of a porous architecture is the key to manipulating their function, thereby promoting the practicality. This paper suggests a simple and scalable synthetic process to prepare mesostructured porous carbon derived by pseudo metal-organic coordination. Inspired by metal-organic framework synthesis, the zinc ion is selected to function as both a mesostructure inducer and self-vanishing porogen, thereby enabling the direct carbonization of non-carbonizable precursors without complicated and environmental burden steps. The resulting porous carbon materials possess mesostructured morphologies, resembling diverse metal oxide crystals with distinct pore architectures, which can be tailored for various applications. Furthermore, the functionalities of the resulting mesostructured porous carbon are demonstrated by evaluating the adsorption behavior for large molecules and the electrochemical performance of the sulfur cathode for Li–S batteries.