Highly Improved Electrochemical Reactions of Mesoporous Carbon Electrodes in Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion

Abstract

We report mesoporous carbon electrodes prepared using silica template, carbonization process under CH4 atmosphere, and subsequent silica removal for improved electrochemical energy storage and conversion in lithium-ion batteries, capacitors, and fuel cells. The as-synthesized carbon electrodes exhibit mesoporous structures with the narrow size distributions corresponding to the replication of the mesoporous SiO2 template. In particular, the meso-C-3 prepared by carbonization process under CH4 atmosphere for 3 h exhibits relatively much higher surface area of 635.07 m(2) g(-1) and pore diameter of similar to 3.13 nm with the narrow size distribution corresponding to the replication of the meso-SiO2. The meso-C-3 shows high charge capacity and high-rate performance during the Li intercalation due to relatively high surface areas and well-defined pores as a buffer to the local volume changes. The improved electrochemical double layer capacitance and oxygen reduction reaction activity of the meso-C-3 might be due to large accessible surface area and pore structure in the well-defined porous electrode.