Double layer capacitance of high surface area carbon nanospheres derived from resorcinol–formaldehyde polymers

Micro-mesoporous bimodal carbon nanospheres with high surface areas were synthesized by a combined use of surfactant templating technique and BaO2 chemical activation one. Starting spherical nanopolymer/surfactant composites were prepared by the NaOH-catalyzed reaction of resorcinol (R) and formaldehyde (F) in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a core template and 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene (TMB) and tert-butanol (t-BuOH) as cosurfactants. After pretreatment with hydrochloric acid, the composite materials were calcined at 1000 °C in N2 coexistent with varying weight ratios of BaO2 to RF polymer ranging from 0 to 11. It produced micro-mesoporous bimodal carbon nanospheres of 124–143 nm diameter, with specific surface areas as high as 1884 m2 g−1 or up to 3301 m2 g−1, in contrast to microporous ones with smaller surface areas obtained at low BaO2-loadings. The electrochemical double layer capacitance of the resulting nanocarbons in 0.5 M H2SO4 showed a marked increase with specific surface areas, up to as high as 219 F g−1 for the highest surface area carbon material.