Exceptionally large surface area and well-defined nanostructure are both critical in the field of nanoporous carbons for challenging energy and environmental issues. The pursuit of ultrahigh surface area while maintaining definite nanostructure remains a formidable challenge because extensive creation of pores will undoubtedly give rise to the damage of nanostructures, especially below 100 nm. Here we report that high surface area of up to 3,022 m2 g−1 can be achieved for hollow carbon nanospheres with an outer diameter of 69 nm by a simple carbonization procedure with carefully selected carbon precursors and carbonization conditions. The tailor-made pore structure of hollow carbon nanospheres enables target-oriented applications, as exemplified by their enhanced adsorption capability towards organic vapours, and electrochemical performances as electrodes for supercapacitors and sulphur host materials for lithium–sulphur batteries. The facile approach may open the doors for preparation of highly porous carbons with desired nanostructure for numerous applications.

Conjugated microporous polymers are developed as a new platform for lithium-battery energy storage, which features a near-unity coulombic efficiency, high capacity and cycle stability. The polymers exhibit synergistic structural effects on facilitating charge dynamics by virtue of their built-in redox skeletons, open nanopores and large surface areas.

Both high surface areas and well-orchestrated nanomorphologies are important for porous organic polymers (POPs). However, the two key characteristics are generally difficult to be satisfied simultaneously, because the common pore-making procedures usually produce ill-defined nanomorphologies or give rise to damage of precustomized nanomorphologies. Herein, a facile yet versatile stepwise crosslinking strategy for fabrication of POPs with an unusual nanomorphology-persistent characteristic during pore-making is reported. Polystyrene nanofibers and poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) nanosphere arrays are utilized as building blocks, and then transformed into nanofibrillar morphology-persistent and ordered array morphology-persistent POPs via stepwise crosslinking, respectively. The stepwise crosslinking strategy includes pre-crosslinking and hypercrosslinking; the pre-crosslinking in a carefully selected poor solvent of polystyrene forms a lowly crosslinked structure, which guarantees the stability of nanomorphology during the subsequent pore-making via hypercrosslinking. The as-obtained POPs can be used as precursors for novel well-defined hyperporous carbon nanofibers and ordered carbon nanosphere arrays with excellent adsorption performances.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

A class of novel N-doped porous carbon nanospheres (PCNSs) with ultrahigh surface areas (e.g., Langmuir surface area = 3219 m g) and large templated mesopore diameters (up to 18.6 nm) was synthesized based upon a simple yet efficient copolymerization-induced self-assembly process of aniline/pyrrole co-monomers and block copolymer templates. The PCNSs exhibited enhanced adsorption properties towards creatinine and superior lithium-sulfur battery performances.

Herein, a 3D composite electrode supported by g-C 3 N 4 nanowire framework as scaffold and poly(3,4ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) as conducting polymer is reported for flexible solidstate electrochemical capacitors. Compared to pure PEDOT: PSS, the composite electrodes have a greatly increased specific surface and showed good electrochemical performance. A specific capacitance of 202 F g −1 is achieved, and 83.5% of initial capacitance maintained after 5000 cycles. The device based on the 3D g-C 3 N 4 / PEDOT: PSS electrode also exhibits good performance in capacitance, flexibility, and cycling stability.