Large area, flexible ordered mesoporous carbon films from soft templating on polymer substrates

Abstract

Mesoporous carbon films are generally fabricated on rigid substrates that act to provide mechanical stability. Here, instead of utilizing rigid substrates, a thin sheet of polyimide (Kapton) is utilized as the substrate to enable continuous production of sheets of soft templated mesoporous carbon films. The mesoporous carbon film is well adhered to the carbonized Kapton. Although mesoporous carbon is generally considered brittle, carbonization of the coated polyimide yields a tough flexible sheet that can be gently bent or even cut to the desired shape. Characterization with transmission electron microscopy, small angle X-ray scattering and N 2 sorption (B.E.T.) confirms the presence of ordered mesopores that conform to expected structures based upon analogous powders. A simple demonstration of the flexible mesoporous carbons as electrodes for aqueous supercapacitors illustrates that the carbonized Kapton can act as the current collector without significant degradation in performance based on the estimated mass of the active mesoporous carbon film at low rates. The fabrication of ordered mesoporous carbon on Kapton provides a facile route to large area, robust high surface area, conductive materials that could be used for a wide variety of electrochemical applications, especially as sensors.

Conversion from self-assembled block copolymer nanodomains to carbon nanostructures with well-defined morphology

“…2 Another strategy is to use a block copolymer (BCP) as a template to produce carbon nanostructures aer pyrolysis at elevated temperatures, as self-assembly of a block copolymer offers access to ordered nanodomains with tunable dimension and structure through control of such molecular parameters as volume fraction and molecular mass. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Several literature reports describe small organic molecules as sources of carbon within BCP self-assembled templates that yield carbon nanostructures of all dimensionalities. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] As BCP materials act only as templates, removal of these templates is necessary aer pyrolysis.…”

“…[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Several literature reports describe small organic molecules as sources of carbon within BCP self-assembled templates that yield carbon nanostructures of all dimensionalities. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] As BCP materials act only as templates, removal of these templates is necessary aer pyrolysis. Recent reports have demonstrated that cross-linked self-assembled BCP can be pyrolyzed directly into carbon nanostructures with morphological delity without addition of small organic precursors, as BCP itself is an organic material that can be regarded as a source of solid carbon.…”

Nanoscale surface conductivity analysis of plasma sputtered carbon thin films

“…Carbon lms have stimulated and diverted the attention of researchers because of their numerous applications such as photovoltaic devices, 1 corrosion inhibition, wear resistant 2 and thermal conductive coatings, 3 chemically inert materials, 4 electroanalysis and sensing devices 5 and regenerative medicine. 6 The efforts, regarding use of carbon lms in biotechnology, can be attributed to their excellent ability to be inert, biocompatible and bioactive with the host.…”

Relationship between crosslinking and ordering kinetics for the fabrication of soft templated (FDU-16) mesoporous carbon thin films

“…One of the more popular systems for the so templating synthesis is the FDU-family of mesoporous carbons based on the cooperative assembly of resol and commercial Pluronic non-ionic surfactants, based on poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(propylene oxide)-block-poly(ethylene oxide). [15][16][17] Examination of lms for this system has revealed several differences in comparison to the synthesis of bulk powders: the compositional window for the ordered phases can be shied, 11 the morphology can be dependent on the lm thickness, 18 and most strikingly that the ordered structure evolves from disorder on heating through a thermally induced self-assembly (TISA) process. 19 These differences suggest that the best processing conditions for the fabrication in lms and powders will be different, but to date these syntheses have utilized the same long thermopolymerization process (120 C for 24 h) as initially developed to optimize the synthesis of FDU-16.…”