CO2-Assisted synthesis of hierarchically porous carbon as a supercapacitor electrode and dye adsorbent

Abstract

A facile and sustainable approach is provided to fabricate hierarchically porous carbon (HPC) materials. Firstly, mesoporous carbon–silica composite materials were prepared via a compressed CO₂-induced aqueous surfactant solution self-assembly approach without any additional or complicated operation procedures. After removal of the template, carbonization in N₂ and etching of the silica component, HPC was obtained. In particular, the as-made HPC with different pore size distributions and textures can be achieved by simply adjusting the CO₂ pressure. Meanwhile, from the results of SEM and TEM, the morphology of the samples transforms from plate-shaped to spherical nanoparticles with an increase of the CO₂ pressure. The promising performance of the developed HPC materials has been demonstrated in their application as a supercapacitor electrode and dye adsorbent. This general strategy can provide a novel route to develop architectural design of hierarchically porous materials in green and alternative chemical processes.