A detailed view on the polycondensation of ionic liquid monomers towards nitrogen doped carbon materials

Recent works have shown the potential of special ionic liquids as a new type of precursor for nitrogen doped carbon materials. The combination of liquid state and negligible vapour pressure represents almost ideal precursor properties, simplifying the processing drastically as compared to solid and especially gas phase educts. Here, we delineate that the ionic liquids need to fulfil certain structural requirements for this purpose: while the cation must be nitrogen containing, e. g. pyridinium or imidazolium, reactive cyano functionalities in the anion are highly beneficial, such as in dicyanamide or tricyanomethide anions. Thermolysis of these precursors in an inert gas atmosphere leads to the formation of nitrogen doped carbon materials with a nitrogen content of about 10 m%, a turbostratic structure and very favourable electric and electrochemical properties. This paper will give an insight into the formation mechanism, structure determination and perspectives on applications of the final material.