CO2-Assisted synthesis of hierarchically porous carbon as a supercapacitor electrode and dye adsorbent

A facile and sustainable approach is provided to fabricate hierarchically porous carbon (HPC) materials. Firstly, mesoporous carbon–silica composite materials were prepared via a compressed CO2-induced aqueous surfactant solution self-assembly approach without any additional or complicated operation procedures. After removal of the template, carbonization in N2 and etching of the silica component, HPC was obtained. In particular, the as-made HPC with different pore size distributions and textures can be achieved by simply adjusting the CO2 pressure. Meanwhile, from the results of SEM and TEM, the morphology of the samples transforms from plate-shaped to spherical nanoparticles with an increase of the CO2 pressure. The promising performance of the developed HPC materials has been demonstrated in their application as a supercapacitor electrode and dye adsorbent. This general strategy can provide a novel route to develop architectural design of hierarchically porous materials in green and alternative chemical processes.