Monolithic Carbon Spherogels as Freestanding Electrodes for Supercapacitors

This study presents a direct application for freestanding and monolithic carbon spherogels, which are highly porous aerogels solely composed of hollow nanospheres, as binder-free electrode materials supercapacitors. By applying polystyrene nanospheres templating agents in the size range 277–907 nm concentrations from 1.5 to 12 wt % sol–gel polymerization process resorcinol–formaldehyde, we can distinctly tailor spheres’ pore arrangement thickness microporous walls. Furthermore, required synthesis conditions mechanically processable (sliceable) spherogels explored. Following physical activation with dioxide, only 277 templated samples, featuring one thin-walled (<20 nm) thick-walled (>60 variant, retain bulk constitution hence suitable electrodes. The electrochemical evaluation demonstrates advantage sphere comparison conventional respect capacitance, particularly at high scan rates. analysis electrolyte diffusion kinetics network morphology after 10,000 charge/discharge cycles reveals necessity wall optimization. Thick-walled variants favored due much higher rate capability 30 kW kg–1 compared 10 kg–1). Additionally, post-mortem TEM loss central cavity degradation samples.