skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Ultrahigh Surface Area Three-Dimensional Porous Graphitic Carbon from Conjugated Polymeric Molecular Framework

Abstract

Porous graphitic carbon is essential for many applications such as energy storage devices, catalysts, and sorbents. However, current graphitic carbons are limited by low conductivity, low surface area, and ineffective pore structure. Here we report a scalable synthesis of porous graphitic carbons using a conjugated polymeric molecular framework as precursor. The multivalent cross-linker and rigid conjugated framework help to maintain micro- and mesoporous structures, while promoting graphitization during carbonization and chemical activation. The above unique design results in a class of highly graphitic carbons at temperature as low as 800 °C with record-high surface area (4073 m2 g–1), large pore volume (2.26 cm–3), and hierarchical pore architecture. Such carbons simultaneously exhibit electrical conductivity >3 times more than activated carbons, very high electrochemical activity at high mass loading, and high stability, as demonstrated by supercapacitors and lithium–sulfur batteries with excellent performance. Moreover, the synthesis can be readily tuned to make a broad range of graphitic carbons with desired structures and compositions for many applications.

Authors:
; ; ; ;  [1]; ;  [2]; ;  [3];
  1. Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan 689-798, Korea
  2. National Laboratory of Microstructures (Nanjing), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
  3. Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94205, United States
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Vehicle Technologies Office (EE-3V)
OSTI Identifier:
1182211
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1214386
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Published Article
Journal Name:
ACS Central Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: ACS Central Science Journal Volume: 1 Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2374-7943
Publisher:
American Chemical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats

To, John W. F., Chen, Zheng, Yao, Hongbin, He, Jiajun, Kim, Kwanpyo, Chou, Ho-Hsiu, Pan, Lijia, Wilcox, Jennifer, Cui, Yi, and Bao, Zhenan. Ultrahigh Surface Area Three-Dimensional Porous Graphitic Carbon from Conjugated Polymeric Molecular Framework. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1021/acscentsci.5b00149.
To, John W. F., Chen, Zheng, Yao, Hongbin, He, Jiajun, Kim, Kwanpyo, Chou, Ho-Hsiu, Pan, Lijia, Wilcox, Jennifer, Cui, Yi, & Bao, Zhenan. Ultrahigh Surface Area Three-Dimensional Porous Graphitic Carbon from Conjugated Polymeric Molecular Framework. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.5b00149
To, John W. F., Chen, Zheng, Yao, Hongbin, He, Jiajun, Kim, Kwanpyo, Chou, Ho-Hsiu, Pan, Lijia, Wilcox, Jennifer, Cui, Yi, and Bao, Zhenan. 2015. "Ultrahigh Surface Area Three-Dimensional Porous Graphitic Carbon from Conjugated Polymeric Molecular Framework". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.5b00149.
@article{osti_1182211,
title = {Ultrahigh Surface Area Three-Dimensional Porous Graphitic Carbon from Conjugated Polymeric Molecular Framework},
author = {To, John W. F. and Chen, Zheng and Yao, Hongbin and He, Jiajun and Kim, Kwanpyo and Chou, Ho-Hsiu and Pan, Lijia and Wilcox, Jennifer and Cui, Yi and Bao, Zhenan},
abstractNote = {Porous graphitic carbon is essential for many applications such as energy storage devices, catalysts, and sorbents. However, current graphitic carbons are limited by low conductivity, low surface area, and ineffective pore structure. Here we report a scalable synthesis of porous graphitic carbons using a conjugated polymeric molecular framework as precursor. The multivalent cross-linker and rigid conjugated framework help to maintain micro- and mesoporous structures, while promoting graphitization during carbonization and chemical activation. The above unique design results in a class of highly graphitic carbons at temperature as low as 800 °C with record-high surface area (4073 m2 g–1), large pore volume (2.26 cm–3), and hierarchical pore architecture. Such carbons simultaneously exhibit electrical conductivity >3 times more than activated carbons, very high electrochemical activity at high mass loading, and high stability, as demonstrated by supercapacitors and lithium–sulfur batteries with excellent performance. Moreover, the synthesis can be readily tuned to make a broad range of graphitic carbons with desired structures and compositions for many applications.},
doi = {10.1021/acscentsci.5b00149},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1182211}, journal = {ACS Central Science},
issn = {2374-7943},
number = 2,
volume = 1,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon May 18 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Mon May 18 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record at https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.5b00149

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 178 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

KOH activation of carbon-based materials for energy storage
journal, January 2012


Activated carbons from yellow poplar and white oak by H3PO4 activation
journal, January 1998


Challenges Facing Lithium Batteries and Electrical Double-Layer Capacitors
journal, September 2012


Copper-Stabilized Sulfur-Microporous Carbon Cathodes for Li-S Batteries
journal, March 2014


Graphene Double-Layer Capacitor with ac Line-Filtering Performance
journal, September 2010


Processable aqueous dispersions of graphene nanosheets
journal, January 2008


Hierarchical nanostructured conducting polymer hydrogel with high electrochemical activity
journal, May 2012


Carbons of high surface area. A study by adsorption and high resolution electron microscopy
journal, January 1982


Space-Confinement-Induced Synthesis of Pyridinic- and Pyrrolic-Nitrogen-Doped Graphene for the Catalysis of Oxygen Reduction
journal, September 2013


Challenges and Prospects of Lithium–Sulfur Batteries
journal, June 2012


Synthesis of a High-Yield Activated Carbon by Air Gasification of Macadamia Nut Shell Charcoal
journal, September 1999


Laser Scribing of High-Performance and Flexible Graphene-Based Electrochemical Capacitors
journal, March 2012


High-Rate Electrochemical Capacitors Based on Ordered Mesoporous Silicon Carbide-Derived Carbon
journal, February 2010


Three-dimensional strutted graphene grown by substrate-free sugar blowing for high-power-density supercapacitors
journal, December 2013


Supercapacitor carbons
journal, October 2013


EELS analysis of vacuum arc-deposited diamond-like films
journal, June 1988


Two-dimensional layered transition metal disulphides for effective encapsulation of high-capacity lithium sulphide cathodes
journal, September 2014


Amphiphilic Surface Modification of Hollow Carbon Nanofibers for Improved Cycle Life of Lithium Sulfur Batteries
journal, February 2013


Studies and characterisations of various activated carbons used for carbon/carbon supercapacitors
journal, October 2001


Charging graphene for energy
journal, October 2014


Highly Reversible Lithium/Dissolved Polysulfide Batteries with Carbon Nanotube Electrodes
journal, May 2013


A High-Performance Carbon for Supercapacitors Obtained by Carbonization of a Seaweed Biopolymer
journal, July 2006


Graphene-Based Ultracapacitors
journal, October 2008


True Performance Metrics in Electrochemical Energy Storage
journal, November 2011


Best practice methods for determining an electrode material's performance for ultracapacitors
journal, January 2010


Carbon materials for supercapacitor application
journal, January 2007


New Approaches for High Energy Density Lithium–Sulfur Battery Cathodes
journal, June 2012


Surface-enhanced redox chemistry of polysulphides on a metallic and polar host for lithium-sulphur batteries
journal, August 2014


Improving lithium–sulphur batteries through spatial control of sulphur species deposition on a hybrid electrode surface
journal, May 2014


The role of graphene for electrochemical energy storage
journal, December 2014


Sulphur–TiO2 yolk–shell nanoarchitecture with internal void space for long-cycle lithium–sulphur batteries
journal, January 2013


Holey graphene frameworks for highly efficient capacitive energy storage
journal, August 2014


Carbon-Based Supercapacitors Produced by Activation of Graphene
journal, May 2011


Three-dimensional flexible and conductive interconnected graphene networks grown by chemical vapour deposition
journal, April 2011


Carbon materials for the electrochemical storage of energy in capacitors
journal, May 2001


A highly efficient polysulfide mediator for lithium–sulfur batteries
journal, January 2015


Evolution of carbon structure in chemically activated wood
journal, January 1995


Preparation of Graphitic Oxide
journal, March 1958


Principles and applications of electrochemical capacitors
journal, May 2000


Li–O2 and Li–S batteries with high energy storage
journal, January 2012


Laser-induced porous graphene films from commercial polymers
journal, December 2014


Tailoring the Pore Alignment for Rapid Ion Transport in Microporous Carbons
journal, March 2010


A metal-free bifunctional electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions
journal, April 2015


Strong Lithium Polysulfide Chemisorption on Electroactive Sites of Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Composites For High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Battery Cathodes
journal, February 2015