A novel synthesis of carbon foam@Fe2O3 via hydrolysis-driven emulsion polymerization for supercapacitor electrodes

Hierarchically porous carbon foam composites with highly dispersed Fe2O3 nanoparticles confined in the foam pores, facilely fabricated by hydrolysis-driven emulsion polymerization strategy. The as-generated acidic conditions of Fe3+ hydrolysis could catalyze the polymerization of phenolic resin, and the carbon-based composite materials containing iron oxides were obtained in situ. The structural characterization results show that HCF@Fe2O3 NPs-2 electrode has the largest specific surface area (549 m(2)/g) and pore volume (0.46 cm(3)/g). Electrochemical results indicates that typical HCF@Fe2O3 NPs-2 electrode displays good capacitive properties. including high specific capacitance (225 F/g at 0.2 A/g current density). Excellent magnification performance (capacity retention rate 80% as current density increases from 0.2 to 10 A/g). At the same time, HCF@SnO2 NPs was successfully synthesized by replacing hydrolyzed tin tetrachloride with ferric chloride. This study provides a new idea for the preparation of metal oxide-carbon matrix composites, and also highlights the potential of such carbon foams in application of energy storage.

Automated summary

Hierarchically porous carbon foam composites with highly dispersed Fe2O3 nanoparticles were fabricated through hydrolysis-driven emulsion polymerization strategy. The resulting carbon-based composite materials containing iron oxides showed the largest specific surface area (549 m(2)/g) and pore volume (0.46 cm(3)/g). The electrode of HCF@Fe2O3 NPs-2 exhibited good capacitive properties, including high specific capacitance (225 F/g at 0.2 A/g current density) and excellent magnification performance (80% capacity retention rate as current density increased from 0.2 to 10 A/g). Moreover, HCF@SnO2 NPs was successfully synthesized by replacing hydrolyzed tin tetrachloride with ferric chloride. This study provides a new idea for the preparation of metal oxide-carbon matrix composites and highlights the potential of carbon foams in energy storage applications.