Synthesis and Electrochemical Performance of Heteroatom-Incorporated Ordered Mesoporous Carbons

Abstract

Heteroatom-incorporated 2D ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) were fabricated via a one-pot organic−organic aqueous self-assembly approach, using resorcinol (R) and formaldehyde (F) as the carbon precursor and triblock copolymer Pluronic F127 as the mesoporous structure template. In this approach, RF resin, boric acid and/or phosphoric acid, and F127 underwent a self-assembly process under a strong acidic condition to form a polymer with ordered mesostructure, which was then carbonized at 800 °C in a nitrogen atmosphere to form B-incorporated, P-incorporated, or B, P-coincorporated OMCs. Nitrogen sorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that the heteroatom-incorporated OMCs possessed highly ordered mesoporous structures, uniform pore size distributions, and large surface areas ranging from 500 to 700 m 2 /g. The incorporation of heteroatoms effectively limited the framework shrinkage during the carbonization process, and simultaneously increased the surface oxygen groups in the carbons. The resulting heteroatom-incorporated OMCs exhibited superior electrochemical performances to nonincorporated counterpart when used as electrodes of supercapacitors.