Ordered mesoporous carbons from lignin: a new class of biobased electrodes for supercapacitors

Abstract

We report the synthesis of sustainable ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) produced from lignin, using the evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA) method. We demonstrated that it is possible to replace half of the phloroglucinol (a well-known carbon precursor currently not derived from bioprecursors) by hardwood organosolv lignin while obtaining a highly ordered pore structure. Notably, we also used glyoxal instead of formaldehyde as a crosslinker, which makes the synthesis route even “greener” with respect to the toxicity of the precursors and their renewable sourcing. Finally, we demonstrated that the resulting carbons make powerful electrodes in supercapacitors and we have made clear correlations between the porous structure and their electrochemical performance in symmetric supercapacitors in order to deliver tailored energy storage to meet various demands (i.e. amount of charge stored vs. power of delivery).