Templated synthesis of microparticles with carbonaceous skeletal structures using polymer cubosomes as templates

Abstract

Polymer cubosomes (PCs) are bicontinuous mesoporous colloidal particles that feature high surface areas and an extremely ordered crystalline pore network. PCs have attracted tremendous attention because of their potential applications in many fields. Herein, we obtained new microparticles with carbonaceous reticulated networks via templated synthesis using PCs as templates. The water-channel networks of the PCs were translated into a carbonaceous skeletal cubic structure. Carbon precursors were polymerized inside the water-channel networks of the PCs under acidic conditions without collapsing the internal crystalline mesophases. The carbonaceous interconnected networks created by the templated synthesis exhibited cubic crystalline skeletal networks similar to those of the PCs. These cubic-ordered mesoporous carbon (cOMC) microparticles exhibited several properties in electrochemical experiments. In addition, the nanoscopic structures and surfaces of these microparticles sustain electrochemically perturbing environments, and thus retain more than 90% capacitance after 1000 charge–discharge cycles.