High electrocapacitive performance of bowl-like monodispersed porous carbon nanoparticles prepared with an interfacial self-assembly process

Bowl-like monodispersed porous carbon nanoparticles (BMPCNs) have been successfully prepared with a facile and scalable approach, and the as-prepared BMPCNs are examined thoroughly by various physical characterizations. Physical measurements display that BMPCNs have the high surface area (1255 m(2) g(-1)), hierarchical porosity, a certain amount of oxygen-containing groups and high graphitization degree. These unique structure features endow BMPCNs with a high capacitance (281 F g(-1) at 0.5 A g(-1)), excellent rate capability (209 F g(-1) at 50 A g(-1)), and outstanding cycling stability (94.8% capacity retention after 10,000 cycles at 10 A g(-1)) in electrochemical double-layer capacitors, suggesting its promising applications in field of energy conversion and storage. Further, the studies on formation mechanism of BMPCNs suggest that, the CTAB wormlike micelles assembling with silica/resorcinol-formaldehyde oligomers at the interface of tetraethyl orthosilicate droplets under Stober condition determines the morphology of BMPCNs. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc.