Ordered mesoporous carbons with fiber- and rod-like morphologies for supercapacitor electrode materials

• Ordered mesoporous carbons with fiber-like (OMC-1) and rod-like (OMC-2) morphologies are synthesized using fiber-like SBA-15 as template.
• The BET surface area and pore volume of OMC-2 (1271 m2/g, 1.23 cm3/g) are lower than that of OMC-1 (1358 m2/g, 1.53 cm3/g).
• This method may be extended for preparing other morphologies ordered mesoporous carbon.

The ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) with fiber-like and rod-like morphologies were selectively synthesized through a simple method and their electrochemical properties has been investigated. The conventional fiber-like SBA-15 was employed as hard template and sucrose as carbon precursor. When the infiltration process under static conditions or stirring for 24 h, the result carbons exhibited fiber-like (OMC-1) or rod-like (OMC-2) morphologies, respectively. Detailed characterizations of the samples revealed that, though the BET surface areas and pore volumes of OMC-2 (1217 m2/g and 1.23 m3/g, respectively) were slightly lower than those of OMC-1 (1358 m2/g and 1.53 m3/g, respectively), the electrochemical behavior of OMC-2 was abnormally better than OMC-1. The specific gravimetric capacitance was 162 F/g at a scan rate of 2 mV/s and the retained ratio was 82% at 50 mV/s for OMC-2, which was 151 F/g and 79% for OMC-1, respectively. Therefore, the as-prepared carbon, especially OMC-2 can be a potential candidate for supercapacitors.