Easy synthesis of phosphorus-incorporated three-dimensionally ordered macroporous carbons with hierarchical pores and their use as electrodes for supercapacitors

Phosphorus-incorporated three-dimensionally ordered macroporous carbons (P-3DOMCs) are synthesized by a colloidal crystal templating strategy with polystyrene spheres as the templates and phenolic resol containing phosphoric acid (PA) as the carbon source. The textural properties and the surface chemistry have been investigated by scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen sorption, and X-ray photoelectron spectra. The content of PA in phenolic resol plays a critical role in the morphology and textural properties of the resulting P-3DOMCs. Using 0.18 g of PA helps to achieve more pronounced 3D-network structure. The carbon materials are employed as supercapacitor electrodes in 6 M KOH aqueous solution, and the cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge-discharge results indicate that they possess higher specific capacitances and retentions than the corresponding phosphorus-free counterpart and the commercial activated carbon. The easy ion transport, large ion-accessible surface area and effective heteroatom functional groups of the 3DOM nanoarchitecture render the carbon material a promising candidate for supercapacitor application. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.