Porous Carbon-based Materials Research Articles

Full-value preparation of biochar and 2D N-doped CDs@ZIF-L from fermentation residues for sensitive sensing tetracyclines in food samples

The use of thermal conversion to convert Chinese patent medicines (CPM) residues into porous carbon-based materials and carbon dots (CDs) has effectively resolved the challenges associated with resource waste and environmental pollution while enhancing the added value of CPM residues. In this study, biochar and N-doped CDs with high quantum yield (QY) were simultaneously prepared from fermentation residues by employing a hydrothermal carbonization method without any chemical reagents. The obtained biochar had remarkable adsorption capacity, with an iodine adsorption value of 693.22 mg g–1. The QY of N-doped CDs could reach to 36.17 % by the mean of self-doping due to the high nitrogen content of the fermentation residues. Considering the structural integrity and permeable porous structure of the two-dimensional leaf-like zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF-L), N-doped CDs were encapsulated into ZIF-L to form novel fluorescent composites (N-doped CDs@ZIF-L). Moreover, N-doped CDs@ZIF-L as a novel fluorescent probe could be efficiently quenched in the presence of tetracycline (TC), doxycycline (DOC), and chlortetracycline (CTC) by static quenching and the inner filter effect. Notably, the fluorescent probe exhibited a good linear relationship with the TC, DOC, and CTC at 0–50, 0–50, and 0–45 μM, respectively, with limits of detection of 0.025, 0.033, and 0.027 μM, respectively. This probe could be employed to detect TC antibiotics in honey and milk, suggesting that it had the great potential for applications in environmental monitoring and food safety.

Catalytic activity of MOF derived CuFe@C catalysts for catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol

The fabrication of porous carbon-based materials from metal organic frameworks have been found useful and efficient route in catalytic applications. The active and reusable Cu@C and CuFe@C bimetallic catalysts were prepared by direct carbonization of HKUST-1 and Fe-doped HKUST-1 and tested for the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). Through various characterization techniques (XRD, SEM, TGA, N2 adsorption, XPS and FTIR), doping of Fe into the composite structure was confirmed. The results demonstrate that Cu0.8Fe0.2@C exhibited enhanced catalytic activity than Cu@C. Cu0.8Fe0.2@C completed the 4-NP reduction reaction in 60 s using NaBH4 as reducing agent. The recyclable, highly stable catalyst has the potential in conversion of harmful pollutants into useful substances.

A One-Step Self-Flowering Method toward Programmable Ultrathin Porous Carbon-Based Materials for Microwave Absorption and Hydrogen Evolution.

Ultrathin 2D porous carbon-based materials offer numerous fascinating electrical, catalytic, and mechanical properties, which hold great promise in various applications. However, it remains a formidable challenge to fabricate these materials with tunable morphology and composition by a simple synthesis strategy. Here, a facile one-step self-flowering method without purification and harsh conditions is reported for large-scale fabrication of high-quality ultrathin (≈1.5nm) N-doped porous carbon nanosheets (NPC) and their composites. It is demonstrated that the layered tannic/oxamide (TA/oxamide) hybrid is spontaneously blown, exfoliated, bloomed, in situ pore-formed, and aromatized during pyrolysis to form flower-like aggregated NPC. This universal one-step self-flowering system is compatible with various precursors to construct multiscale NPC-based composites (Ru@NPC, ZnO@NPC, MoS2 @NPC, Co@NPC, rGO@NPC, etc.). Notably, the programmable architecture enables NPC-based materials with excellent multifunctional performances, such as microwave absorption and hydrogen evolution. This work provides a facile, universal, scalable, and eco-friendly avenue to fabricate functional ultrathin porous carbon-based materials with programmability.

Controllable synthesis of nitrogen-doped porous Fe3C@C nanocomposites for efficient microwave absorption

Three-dimensional (3D) porous carbon-based materials are commonly considered to be a hopeful microwave absorbing materials owing to their lightweight and broadband absorption. However, the structure between dissipation mechanism is still not clear. Therefore, in this work, the nitrogen-doped porous Fe3C@C nanocomposites derived from Fe(NO3)3·9 H2O and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) were fabricated through pre-blowing followed by in situ carbonization method with various temperatures. The obtained material treated at 600 °C, which the content of N was 4.07 %, exhibits the most excellent microwave absorption (MA) property with the minimal reflection loss of − 63.1 dB at 5.0 GHz while the matching thickness is 4.6 mm. The MA performance of the composite is originated from the synergy of magnetic-dielectric loss and improved interfacial polarization. This research provides a way to prepare high-property MA absorbers.

Ultralight melamine foam derived metal nanoparticles encapsulated CNTs/porous carbon composite for electromagnetic absorption

Three-dimensional (3D) porous carbon materials have emerged as potential microwave absorption candidates due to their unique advantages of high specific surface area and high porosity. However, much less attention has been paid to enhance the performance by designing microstructures. In this work, metal nanoparticles encapsulated carbon nanotubes/carbonized melamine foam composites were successfully synthesized by a simple chemical and pyrolysis method. The microstructure and microwave absorption properties are investigated, and the magnetic/dielectric loss mechanism is studied furtherly. During the pyrolysis process, metal nanoparticles encapsulated carbon nanotubes in-situ growth on 3D porous carbon derived from melamine foam. The metal component and CNTs morphology could be regulated by changing the precursor concentration and that further tuning the absorption performance. Ascribed to multiple interface reflections, dielectric/magnetic loss, multiple polarization behavior and improved impedance matching, the CNTs/CF-3:0 composite achieves a strong reflection loss (− 75.4 dB at 5.2 GHz) and ultra-wide response bandwidth (4.1–18.0 GHz with RL value over − 10 dB). Such a 3D network framework realizes the low density. These results may generate interest and inspiration for the elaborate design and synthesis of submicron-scale structures of 3D porous carbon-based absorbing materials.

A multifunctional carbon-base phase change composite inspired by "fruit growth"

Inspired by fruit growth, we proposed a strategy for the preparation of multifunctional phase change materials (PCMs) based on carbon-based porous materials. The composite was fabricated by using polymerization reaction of resorcinol-formaldehyde resin (“pulp”) on the surface of three-dimensional skeleton of loofah sponge (“kernel”) to form porous foam via high temperature carbonization, followed by further vacuum adsorption of paraffin wax (“fruit juice”). With excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, light absorption performance as well as thermal energy storage capacity, the designed phase change composite (PCC) system demonstrated superior performance in temperature management, photo/electrical thermal conversion, multi-driver thermoelectric generation and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. The graded porous structure of carbon foam allowed for high adsorption capacity (∼91%) of paraffin wax which was leak proof, ensuring high enthalpy of the fabricated PCC. Enhanced thermal/electrical conductivity allowed the as-prepared PCCs to provide multi-source driven thermal management performance and excellent EMI shielding (∼52 dB). In addition, the prepared multifunctional PCCs exhibited high photothermal conversion efficiency (∼84%) and enhanced efficiency for thermoelectric generation. In summary, this study provided a novel route for the preparation of multifunctional PCCs and provided broad application prospects in advanced thermal management, energy conversion EMI shielding for PCMs.

One-Step Synthesis of Sulfur-Doped Nanoporous Carbons from Lignin with Ultra-High Surface Area, Sulfur Content and CO2 Adsorption Capacity

Lignin is the second-most available biopolymer in nature. In this work, lignin was employed as the carbon precursor for the one-step synthesis of sulfur-doped nanoporous carbons. Sulfur-doped nanoporous carbons have several applications in scientific and technological sectors. In order to synthesize sulfur-doped nanoporous carbons from lignin, sodium thiosulfate was employed as a sulfurizing agent and potassium hydroxide as the activating agent to create porosity. The resultant carbons were characterized by pore textural properties, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The nanoporous carbons possess BET surface areas of 741-3626 m2/g and a total pore volume of 0.5-1.74 cm3/g. The BET surface area of the carbon was one of the highest that was reported for any carbon-based materials. The sulfur contents of the carbons are 1-12.6 at.%, and the key functionalities include S=C, S-C=O, and SOx. The adsorption isotherms of three gases, CO2, CH4, and N2, were measured at 298 K, with pressure up to 1 bar. In all the carbons, the adsorbed amount was highest for CO2, followed by CH4 and N2. The equilibrium uptake capacity for CO2 was as high as ~11 mmol/g at 298 K and 760 torr, which is likely the highest among all the porous carbon-based materials reported so far. Ideally adsorbed solution theory (IAST) was employed to calculate the selectivity for CO2/N2, CO2/CH4, and CH4/N2, and some of the carbons reported a very high selectivity value. The overall results suggest that these carbons can potentially be used for gas separation purposes.

Identification and quantification of the distributed capacitance and ionic resistance in carbon-based supercapacitors using electrochemical techniques and the analysis of the charge-storage dynamics

This study reports the in-situ characterization of nanosized carbon-based electrodes to identify and quantify the distributed capacitance and resistances verified in the time domain during the charge-storage process in aqueous-based symmetric coin cells. A theoretical model was proposed to represent the electrochemical response considering the presence of the so-called ‘inner’/internal and ‘outer’/external surface regions. The derivative analysis of the galvanostatic findings revealed the presence of two distinct voltage plateaux that were ascribed to the progressive assessment of the ‘outer’ and ‘inner’ surface regions by the ionic species. For the first time, it was demonstrated a connection between the heterogeneous surface nature of carbon electrodes and the charge-storage process in supercapacitors where different charge-storage dynamics regarding the migration of the ionic species can be identified due to the progressive transfer of ions from the ‘outer’ to the ‘inner’ surface regions as a function of the polarization time. The synthesized carbon materials were ex-situ characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. Specifically, the surface-modified MWCNTs allowed us to focus on a fundamental approach for studying the overall capacitance characteristics of nanostructured carbon-based electrodes. Thus, the charge-storage mechanism in the time domain and the individual contribution of the pseudocapacitance in the frequency domain were studied to clarify the real electrochemical behavior exhibited by porous carbon-based electrode materials.

Enhanced Electromagnetic Wave Absorption of SiOC/Porous Carbon Composites.

Carbon-based materials have been widely explored as electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbing materials with specific surface areas and low density. Herein, novel porous carbon/SiOC ceramic composites materials (porous C/sp-SiOC) were prepared from the binary mixture, which used the low cost pitch as carbon resource and the polysilylacetylene (PSA) as SiOC ceramic precursor. With the melt-blending-phase separation route, the PSA resin formed micro-spheres in the pitch. Then, numerous SiOC ceramic micro-spheres were generated in porous carbon matrices during the pyrolysis process. By changing the percent of SiOC, the microstructure and wave absorption of porous C/sp-SiOC composites could be adjusted. The synergistic effect of the unique structure, the strong interfacial polarization, and the optimized impedance matching properties contributed to the excellent absorption performance of porous C/sp-SiOC composites. The minimum reflection loss for porous C/sp-SiOC absorber reached -56.85 dB, and the widest effective bandwidth was more than 4 GHz with a thickness of only 1.39 mm. This presented research provides an innovative and practical approach to developing high-performance porous carbon-based microwave absorption materials from green chemistry.

Synthesis and applications of carbon porous nano-materials for environmental remediation

Carbon-based porous materials are widely used as adsorbents due to their high adsorption capacity and unique properties such as large pore size, sizeable area-to-volume ratio, high thermal & electrical conductivity etc., to remove pollutant from water and thus helps in water remediation. Water contamination poses severe impacts on humans as well as on marine life. In this review, we studied porous carbon materials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes and activated carbon, including their synthesis, properties and wide applications in water remediation. Absorbent materials at different scales for these applications are auspicious for environmental remediation. This review also provides future endeavors of carbon porous materials towards sustainable techniques for an eco-friendly environment.

Value-added functional carbon for potential electrodes and its validation

Carbon-based porous materials suffer from insufficient electric charge storage capacity and limited energy density; however, those can be tailored to enhance electrochemical performance via induced pseudo-capacitance. This study introduces a facile synthesis technique that delivers a novel class of redox-active porous‑carbon materials from human hair—a keratin fiber from municipal waste feedstock—by direct pyrolysis and surface activation. Retention of ~33 atomic% of redox-active species in microporous‑carbon with a pore volume of 1.1 cm3 g−1 drastically enhances the BET surface area ~ 2957 m2 g−1 and electrochemical electrode properties. This carbon-based electrode exhibits ~70 % rate-capability at 20 A g−1. Contrastingly, mesoporous carbon with relatively low heteroatom content 20–25 atomic%, significantly reduced pore volume ~ 0.1 cm3 g−1 delivers high electrode capacitance 877 F g−1 that diminishes rapidly, providing 20 % rate capability at 20 A g−1. When configured as a supercapacitor device, red-ox active carbons exploit contributions from EDLC and pseudo-capacitance. COMSOL Multiphysics has been used to study the carbon arrangement for delivering high capacitance value. The carbon sphere with an 8 nm diameter having a pore length of 7.3 nm shows a similar capacitance achieved experimentally. While the microporous carbon-based device shows a moderate energy density of 7.6 Wh kg−1, the mesoporous carbon shows a higher energy density of 30 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 325 W kg−1. Both devices offer good high-rate capabilities at high current densities. In organic electrolyte 1 M LiPF6 EC/DEC, the symmetric assembled PC-9 deliver excellent specific capacitance 286 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 with maximum energy density of 124 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 1250 W kg−1. Thus, this research demonstrates a new class of sustainable carbon with tunable energy storage potential.

Nanosilver modified navel orange peel foam/polyethylene glycol composite phase change materials with improved thermal conductivity and photo-thermal conversion efficiency

Porous carbon-based composite phase change materials (CPCMs) have received widespread attention from researchers for their stable shape and considerable latent heat storage capacity. Here, using navel orange peel-based porous carbon (BPC) as the support carrier, nano-Ag as the surface modification material and polyethylene glycol (PEG) for the phase change medium, a novel PEG/BPC-Ag (Ag@CPCM) was fabricated by vacuum impregnation. Surprisingly, the experimental results indicated that nano-Ag modified the BPC could make the Ag@CPCM have stronger photo-thermal conversion ability, higher thermal conductivity and better thermal reliability. Significantly, the addition of nano-Ag increased the thermal conductivity of navel orange peel-based CPCMs to 0.639 W/m K (Ag@CPCM) from 0.313 W/m K (PEG/BPC), and its relative enthalpy efficiency η raised to 107.2 % from 104.8 %, and its photo-thermal conversion efficiency θ increased to 94.7 % from 77.2 %. Furthermore, the prepared novel CPCMs maintained its original phase change properties after 100 thermal cycles of testing, which demonstrated that the prepared CPCMs possessed favorable thermal stability and reusability. Overall, the Ag@CPCM materials have great potential for applications such as thermal management and solar energy storage.

Improved hydrogen storage performances of the as-milled Mg-Al-Y alloy by co-doping of Tm@C (Tm = Fe, Co, Cu)

In this study, the porous carbon-based materials loaded with Fe, Co, and Cu nanoparticles were fabricated by chemical blow molding carbonization to ameliorate the hydrogen storage performances of as-milled Mg91Al5Y4 alloy. The Sievert apparatus was utilized to test the isothermal hydrogen absorption/desorption curves and P-C-T (Pressure-composition-temperature) curves. The microstructure characterizations of the specimens were completed by using XRD (X-ray diffraction), SEM (scanning electron microscope), TEM (transmission electron microscope), etc. Besides, Raman spectrum and Nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms have been applied to characterize the defect density, specific surface area and dominant pore diameter of the catalysts. Based on the results, the catalysts Tm@C (Tm = Fe, Co, Cu) with porous lamellar structure have the specific surface area of 156.9, 190.9, 106.4 m2/g and the diffraction intensity ratio (ID/IG) of 1.06, 1.09, 0.96, respectively, showing great catalytic influence on hydrogen storage performances of as-milled Mg-Al-Y alloy Concretely, the composite Mg91Al5Y4 + 5 wt% Co@C with the minimum dehydrogenation activation energy of 84.8 kJ/mol can absorb a small amount of H2 at 323 K, besides, the initial hydrogen desorption temperature of it is about 521.5 K. The catalytic functions of Tm@C can be ascribed to the following aspects: the enhancement of milling efficiency and the following particle/grain refinement of alloy; the introduction of great number of defects (active sites); the loaded transition metals (with high electronegativity and multi-valence) or their derivative nanoparticles, etc.

Porous 3D carbon-based materials: An emerging platform for efficient hydrogen production

Porous 3D carbon-based materials: An emerging platform for efficient hydrogen production

Biomass-Derived Advanced Carbon-Based Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Noble metal-based materials are enormously used as a cathode material for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which plays an important role in determining the performance of energy conversion and storage devices such as fuel cells, metal-air battery, and so on. The practicability of these energy devices is mainly related to the cost of the cathodic ORR electrocatalyst. Hence, a cost-effective and environmentally benign approach is highly demanding to design the electrocatalyst for ORR and replacing noble metal-based electrocatalyst. In this regard, biomass-derived hierarchically porous carbon-based materials have become attractive options compared to metal-based electrocatalysts due to their several advantages such as abundance in nature, economic viability, characteristic sustainability, environmental friendliness, and excellent physicochemical properties. Moreover, harsh chemicals are not being involved during their synthesis, and they intrinsically possess a variety of heteroatoms (N, P, S, etc.), which are key for augmenting the electrocatalytic activity. In the present review article, the recent progress on biomass-derived cathode electrocatalysts has been summarized for ORR including a brief account of bioresource selection, synthesis methods, and processing criteria that greatly influences the electrocatalytic activity.

Petroleum pitch-derived porous carbon as a metal-free catalyst for direct propane dehydrogenation to propylene

Propane dehydrogenation (PDH), as one of the most promising strategies for propylene synthesis, has attracted tremendous attention with the increase of shale gas exploitation. The exploration of green and sustainable catalytic materials to replace the high-price (Pt-Sn/Al2O3) and environmentally unfavorable (Cr2O3/Al2O3) catalysts will drive the rapid development of PDH technology. Porous carbon-based materials have been proposed as ideal PDH catalysts due to their abundant surface quinone/ketone CO groups for C-H bond activation and well-developed pore structures for mass transfer. However, the facile preparation of carbon-based catalysts with controllable surface properties and unique architectures remains a challenge. And the structure-function relationship of carbon-based catalysts in PDH is also under debate. Herein, we report a simple and efficient synthetic method to prepare the porous carbon-based PDH catalysts with cheap and readily available petroleum pitch as carbon source. The surface chemical properties and architectures of the porous carbon-based catalysts can be precisely tailored by varying the activation temperature during the synthesis process. Various characterizations including X-ray photoelectron spectra, temperature-programmed pyrolysis curves, thermogravimetric analysis and morphology observations clarify that the plentiful surface quinone/ketone CO groups and appropriate adsorption/desorption strengths of reactant/products derived from the great specific surface area are vital factors that guarantee the excellent C-H bond activation capability (propane conversion 45.6%) and alkenes selectivity (73.9%, propylene and ethylene) of the petroleum pitch-derived porous carbon catalyst. This work not only provides a promising alternative catalyst for the PDH process but also enriches the application fields of the carbon-based catalysts.

Wood based quasi-solid-state Zn-air battery with dual honeycomb-like porous carbon and cationic nanocellulose film

Conversion of low-value biomass to hierarchically porous carbon-based materials for oxygen reduction reactions (ORR), without using conventional template methods, is of particular significant for energy storage technology. Herein, dual honeycomb-like porous carbon inspired by multiscale structure of wood was assembled with cationic nanocellulose film into Zn-air battery. Nitrogen-doped hierarchically porous carbon was obtained by a simple two-step process involving alkaline extraction and pyrolysis with NH4Cl. Alkaline extraction was utilized for partially degrading lignin and heterosaccharide from unprocessed wood to create a porous wood with numerous nanopores and 3D loose structure. The inner and outer parts of obtained porous wood were further pore-optimized and doped with NH4Cl by a consequent pyrolysis step. The resulting carbon-based material (AHWC) possessed high specific surface area (1601.8 m2 g−1), well-developed hierarchical porosity, and high N content enabled excellent electrocatalytic oxygen reduction performance. Compared with commercial Pt/C catalysts in KOH electrolyte, AHWC exhibits nearly two times higher kinetic currents in the low overpotential region, comparable number of transferred electrons, and significantly higher operating stability. This carbon-based material also showed an excellent capacity and energy density equal to 792 mA h g−1 and 927 W h kg−1, together with superior long-term durability (200 h at the current density of 10 mA cm−2) when assembled as the active electrode material into a Zn-air battery. Additionally, cationic modified nanocellulose film (C-CNF-M), acting as a solid electrolyte, was assembled with AHWC for a quasi-solid-state Zn-air battery which exhibited excellent specific capacity (672.2 mA h g−1), energy density (644.11 W h kg−1) and cycling stability (500 min at 1 mA cm−2). The AHWC establish a bridge between papermaking and the field of energy storage by green conversion of biomass and fabrication of porous carbon-based materials and cellulose based electrolyte with excellent properties applicable to electrochemical energy devices.

Thermally Conductive and Leakage-Proof Phase-Change Materials Composed of Dense Graphene Foam and Paraffin for Thermal Management

Practical implementation of porous carbon-based composite phase-change materials (CPCMs) for heat dissipation in high-power-density electronics is usually limited by liquid leakage issues and unsatisfactory thermal conductivity resulting from their relatively low filler fraction and/or existence of interfacial thermal resistance between fillers. Therefore, development of shape-stable CPCMs with high thermal conductivity and large latent heat to avoid overheating of electronics remains challenging. Herein, graphene foams (GFs) with very high densities of up to 204 mg/cm3 have been synthesized to act as interconnected porous networks of CPCMs. Notably, the obtained CPCM with a filler loading of 11.1 wt % preserves a high heat capacity (171.8 J/g) with a retention of 84.8% while showing a 22.6-fold enhancement in the thermal conductivity as compared to pure PCM (10.13 vs 0.43 W/m·K). A higher thermal conductivity of 14.29 W/m·K can be achieved by further increasing the filler loading to 17.7 wt %, which outperforms many of the previously reported CPCMs based on the interconnected porous carbon-based frameworks. Owing to the superior interconnected network structure of the dense GFs and the strong interconnection between them and PCM molecules, these CPCMs also exhibit leakage-proof shape stability and excellent thermal reliability (at least 100 cycles). Moreover, a state-of-the-art aluminum (Al) package based on the CPCM (filler loading: 11.1 wt %) possessing weight 60% less than its pure Al panel counterpart has been demonstrated to verify better heat transfer efficiency and more efficient phonon pathways of the CPCM composite than those of the pure PCM, which holds great promise for advanced thermal management of emerging applications in electronics.

Carbon-based cathode host derived from crosslinked porous polyimides for lithium-sulfur batteries and their electrochemical properties

Carbon-based porous materials as Li–S batteries cathode hosts have received widespread attention because of the superiority of fine physical confinement, vast accommodation voids and excellent conductive networks, towards realizing the adsorption-diffusion-conversion of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs). However, carbon-based materials are usually non-polar, which can only act as physical barriers to limit polysulfides shuttle behavior during short-term cycling of Li–S batteries, lacking strong chemical entrapment towards the polar polysulfides. Herein, we successfully synthesize two novel carbon-based hierarchical porous materials (CR-PPIs@800) derived from crosslinked porous polyimides (CR-PPIs) via traditional polymerization and crosslinking reaction as well as high-temperature treatment. Because the pre-designed porous architectures, CR-PPIs@800 not only give hierarchical porous structure for accommodating LiPSs, but also afford strong chemisorption interaction from high heteroatom N species for adsorbing LiPSs and buffering shuttle behaviors. The carbon networks of CR-PPIs@800 possess valid ion storage and transportation network for accelerating charge/ion migration of LiPSs. Profiting from above advantages, S/CR-PPIs@800 composites cathodes realize the fast conversion of LiPSs, and show promoted electrochemical properties.

Designing kinetics of graphene composited multiscale porous carbon for advancing energy storage performance of supercapacitors

Despite active research on supercapacitors to address the demand for high-power backup power systems, the energy storage performance of supercapacitors at high current densities has scope for improvement owing to the poor kinetics of active materials. In this study, multiscale porous carbon-based active materials were designed to improve the kinetics and power density of supercapacitors. These materials were fabricated by spinodal decomposition of a mixture comprising an epoxy resin, a curing agent, and a porogen, to which graphene was added to optimize the carbonaceous microstructure. The resultant material exhibited a wider pore-size distribution and considerably improved microstructure than commercial activated carbon (YP-50F). The charge-transfer resistance of the sample containing 3 wt.% graphene (A-EM3) was considerably lower than that of YP-50F owing to the microstructural improvement. Furthermore, the effective ionic conductivity of A-EM3 was approximately three times higher than that of YP-50F owing to enhanced mass transfer. A-EM3 exhibited a high specific capacitance (81.0 F g−1) at the highest current density (10.0 A g−1). Thus, spinodal decomposition and graphene addition are effective means to fabricate high-power-density supercapacitors.