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Varying the Hydrogen Bonding Strength in Phenolic/PEO‐ b ‐PLA Blends Provides Mesoporous Carbons Having Large Accessible Pores Suitable for Energy Storage
Author(s) -
Li JhengGuang,
Lee PoYuan,
Ahmed Mahmoud M. M.,
Mohamed Mohamed Gamal,
Kuo ShiaoWei
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.202000040
Subject(s) - mesoporous material , materials science , chemical engineering , ethylene oxide , copolymer , carbonization , calcination , oxide , gyroid , polymer chemistry , polymer , organic chemistry , chemistry , composite material , catalysis , engineering , scanning electron microscope , metallurgy
In this study, mesoporous carbons are prepared by using a resol‐type phenolic resin as the carbon source and poly(ethylene oxide‐ b ‐lactic acid) (PEO‐ b ‐PLA) copolymer as the template, with a process of thermal curing, calcination, carbonization, and activation. The structures of these mesoporous carbons are strongly influenced by the self‐assembled structures formed from phenolic/PEO‐ b ‐PLA blends, varying from double‐gyroid, to cylinder, and finally to spherical micelle structures upon increasing the phenolic concentrations. The large pores (>20 nm) and high surface areas (>1000 m 2 g −1 ) of these activated mesoporous carbons arise because the phenolic resin interacts only with the PEO segment (i.e., not with the PLA segment) through hydrogen bonding; thus, the relative wall thickness of the phenolic matrix decreases after template removal (thereby increasing the pore size), similar to the behavior of the poly(ethylene oxide‐ b ‐styrene) template system. Furthermore, these mesoporous carbons display efficient energy storage capacities of up to 200 F g −1 at 5 mV s −1 , with excellent stabilities after 5000 charge/discharge cycles at 20 A g −1 . Thus, this facile approach provides large and well‐ordered mesoporous carbons suitable for energy storage applications.