Controllable synthesis of mesoporous carbon nanoparticles based on PAN-b-PMMA diblock copolymer micelles generated via RAFT polymerization as electrode materials for supercapacitors

Abstract

Mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (MCNs) were prepared through a series of annealing procedures using well-controlled diblock copolymer micelles as precursors. The micelles were prepared from poly(acrylonitrile)-block-poly(methylmethacrylate) (PAN-b-PMMA), and synthesized via reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. The RAFT-controlled synthesis of block copolymer, PAN-b-PMMA was conducted either in solution or emulsion conditions. It was found that micelles with well-defined morphology could be directly formed from the emulsion polymerization. The as-synthesized micelles containing hydrophilic PAN corona as the carbon source and hydrophobic PMMA core as the sacrificing template underwent a microphase-separation process to form a nanostructure at 250 °C, followed by carbonization at 800 °C to afford MCNs. What's more, the MCNs based supercapacitor exhibited a good capacitance value of 220 F g⁻¹ and an excellent cycling performance of 91% capacitance retention after 10 000 cycles. The as-prepared MCNs are envisioned to provide broad practical applications in the fields of energy storage and nanotechnology.