Synthesis of carbon nanomembranes through cross-linking of phenyl self-assembled monolayers for electrode materials in supercapacitors

Abstract

A bottom-up synthesis of three-dimensional (3D) carbon nanomembranes (CNMs) was developed through Friedel–Crafts cross-linking of phenyl self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on silica nanospheres (SNSs) followed by high temperature treatment and template removal. The CNMs show a hierarchically 3D connected porous structure and the pore sizes are facilely tuned by varying the sizes of SNS templates. CNMs with high surface area (>1500 m² g⁻¹), large pore volume (∼3 cm³ g⁻¹) and partially graphitized frameworks exhibited good performances as supercapacitor electrode materials. The specific capacitance of the porous 3D CNMs reached 202 F g⁻¹ at a current density of 0.5 A g⁻¹ in an aqueous electrolyte.