Trace phenol-formaldehyde resin activation mechanism of intermediate graphitic layer removal in carbon for enhanced Li-ion capacitor performance.

IF 4.2 3区化学 Q2 CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Frontiers in Chemistry Pub Date : 2025-09-22 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.3389/fchem.2025.1592695

Yingkai Xia, Shuang Wei, Xiao Wei, Yuehui Chen, Jiahang Ding, Haoyuan Zheng, Sen Yang, Shaobin Yang

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Abstract

Precise modulation of the pore structure in activated carbon can further enhance the capacitance performance of supercapacitors. As a carbonaceous precursor, phenol-formaldehyde resin (PR) plays a dual role in both carbon deposition and activation for pore regulation; however, the activation mechanism governing its pore-tuning effect remains unclear. In this study, trace PR with a mass ratio of 0.2%-0.8% was mixed with activated carbon for heat treatment. The results revealed that trace amounts of PR exhibit an activation mechanism by selectively removing intermediate graphene layers. Specifically, the removal of one-three graphene layers resulted in the formation of periodic micropores with diameters of 0.50-0.56 nm, 0.81-0.90 nm, and 1.14-1.19 nm. Correlation analysis demonstrated that the pore size most strongly associated with lithium-ion capacitance and diffusion coefficients fell within the range formed by the removal of a single graphene layer. Compared with one-step activation using PR, the multi-step activation process slowed the rate of pore expansion following single-layer removal, facilitating the formation of a greater proportion of 0.54 nm pores-those most closely linked to enhanced capacitance and ion diffusion. Consequently, the prepared coal-derived activated carbon achieved a capacitance of 164 F g^-1, matching the highest reported values for aqueous lithium-ion capacitors using porous carbon (PC) materials. This study reveals a novel mechanism of precise pore modulation at the 0.01 nm scale through trace PR activation, providing new insights into the structural regulation of PC materials for advanced energy storage applications.

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微量酚醛树脂活化碳中中间石墨层去除提高锂离子电容器性能的机理。

通过对活性炭孔结构的精确调控，可以进一步提高超级电容器的电容性能。酚醛树脂（PR）作为碳质前驱体，具有沉积碳和活化孔隙调节的双重作用；然而，调控其孔隙调节作用的激活机制尚不清楚。本研究将质量比为0.2%-0.8%的微量PR与活性炭混合进行热处理。结果表明，微量PR通过选择性去除中间石墨烯层表现出活化机制。具体来说，去除1- 3层石墨烯导致形成直径为0.50-0.56 nm、0.81-0.90 nm和1.14-1.19 nm的周期性微孔。相关分析表明，与锂离子电容和扩散系数相关性最强的孔径落在去除单个石墨烯层形成的范围内。与PR一步活化相比，多步活化过程减缓了单层去除后的孔隙扩张速度，有利于形成更大比例的0.54 nm孔隙，这些孔隙与增强的电容和离子扩散最密切相关。因此，制备的煤衍生活性炭实现了164 gf -1的电容，与使用多孔碳（PC）材料的水性锂离子电容器的最高值相匹配。该研究揭示了通过微量PR激活在0.01 nm尺度上进行精确孔调制的新机制，为先进储能应用中PC材料的结构调节提供了新的见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Frontiers in Chemistry Chemistry-General Chemistry

CiteScore

8.50

自引率

3.60%

发文量

1540

审稿时长

12 weeks

期刊介绍： Frontiers in Chemistry is a high visiblity and quality journal, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across the chemical sciences. Field Chief Editor Steve Suib at the University of Connecticut is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to academics, industry leaders and the public worldwide. Chemistry is a branch of science that is linked to all other main fields of research. The omnipresence of Chemistry is apparent in our everyday lives from the electronic devices that we all use to communicate, to foods we eat, to our health and well-being, to the different forms of energy that we use. While there are many subtopics and specialties of Chemistry, the fundamental link in all these areas is how atoms, ions, and molecules come together and come apart in what some have come to call the “dance of life”. All specialty sections of Frontiers in Chemistry are open-access with the goal of publishing outstanding research publications, review articles, commentaries, and ideas about various aspects of Chemistry. The past forms of publication often have specific subdisciplines, most commonly of analytical, inorganic, organic and physical chemistries, but these days those lines and boxes are quite blurry and the silos of those disciplines appear to be eroding. Chemistry is important to both fundamental and applied areas of research and manufacturing, and indeed the outlines of academic versus industrial research are also often artificial. Collaborative research across all specialty areas of Chemistry is highly encouraged and supported as we move forward. These are exciting times and the field of Chemistry is an important and significant contributor to our collective knowledge.