A Controllable Synthesis of Rich Nitrogen-Doped Ordered Mesoporous Carbon for CO2 Capture and Supercapacitors

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 23; no. 18; pp. 2322 - 2328
• Main Authors: Wei, Jing, Zhou, Dandan, Sun, Zhenkun, Deng, Yonghui, Xia, Yongyao, Zhao, Dongyuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 13.05.2013; WILEY‐VCH Verlag
• Subjects: mesoporous materials; N-doping; self-assembly; supercapacitors; synthesis
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201202764

A controllable one‐pot method to synthesize N‐doped ordered mesoporous carbons (NMC) with a high N content by using dicyandiamide as a nitrogen source via an evaporation‐induced self‐assembly process is reported. In this synthesis, resol molecules can bridge the Pluronic F127 template and dicyandiamide via hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions. During thermosetting at 100 °C for formation of rigid phenolic resin and subsequent pyrolysis at 600 °C for carbonization, dicyandiamide provides closed N species while resol can form a stable framework, thus ensuring the successful synthesis of ordered N‐doped mesoporous carbon. The obtained N‐doped ordered mesoporous carbons possess tunable mesostructures (p6m and Im$ \bar 3 $m symmetry) and pore size (3.1–17.6 nm), high surface area (494–586 m2 g−1), and high N content (up to 13.1 wt%). Ascribed to the unique feature of large surface area and high N contents, NMC materials show high CO2 capture of 2.8–3.2 mmol g−1 at 298 K and 1.0 bar, and exhibit good performance as the supercapacitor electrode with specific capacitances of 262 F g−1 (in 1 M H2SO4) and 227 F g−1 (in 6 M KOH) at a current density of 0.2 A g−1. A facile and controllable synthesis method for producing ordered mesoporous carbon with high surface area and high nitrogen content is demonstrated. The approach uses soluble resol and dicyandiamide as the carbon and nitrogen source, respectively, and Pluronic F127 copolymer as a soft template via a solvent evaporation‐induced self‐assembly process.