Design of carbon materials with ultramicro-, supermicro- and mesopores using solvent- and self-template strategy for supercapacitors

Abstract We design a novel solvent- and self-template strategy to fabricate carbon materials with ultramicro-, supermicro- and mesopores through a simple solvothermal reaction of phloroglucinol and terephthaldehyde in dioxane using acetic acid as the catalyst, followed by carbonization. Dioxane serves simultaneously as a solvent in the reaction system and a template to generate mesopores (3.6 nm). Meanwhile, phloroglucinol/terephthaldehyde polymeric organic frameworks act as a self-template to produce regular and well-developed ultramicropores (0.54 nm) and some supermicropores (0.86 and 1.3 nm) during carbonization. High specific surface area (1003 m2 g−1) coupled with hierarchical porous structure endow the resultant carbon electrode excellent electrochemical properties including a satisfactory specific capacitance (214 F g−1 at 1.0 A g−1), excellent rate capability (154 F g−1 at a very high current density of 50 A g−1) as well as superb long-term cycling stability (95.5% retention of initial capacitance after 10000 cycles) in alkaline electrolyte. Compared with traditional synthetic strategy for porous carbons, the present approach can be easily carried out, avoiding tedious procedure, customized hard/soft template or extra activation step, and thus highlights new opportunities towards the simple and highly efficient synthesis of well-designed porous carbons for supercapacitor applications.