Large, Mesoporous Carbon Nanoparticles with Tunable Architectures for Energy Storage

We report the synthesis of giant carbon particles with spherical and interconnected porous morphologies. Direct organic–organic self-assembly between phenolic resin and polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PS-b-PEO) was employed to prepare these highly ordered carbon particles. Mesoporous carbon nanoparticles with tunable textural characteristics such as large surface area, uniform pore structure, and high thermal properties were achieved by simply adjusting the ratio between the block copolymer to phenol without using acid, base, or activating agents. The synthesized nanoparticles possess a very high surface area of up to 832 m2 g–1, and ultrasmall pore size, as small as 3 nm, and exhibited excellent electrochemical performance when used as active electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. Making use of the secondary interactions between the functional groups of the block copolymer and phenol, this study created tunable nanoparticles with excellent surface area and uniform morphologies that can be used in target oriented applications in the energy storage area.