(65a) Templated Ordered Mesoporou Materials for Supercapacitors and Lithium Ion Batteries

For high performance supercapacitor and Li-ion battery electrodes, various mesoporous metal oxide materials have been synthesized by employing lab-synthesized block copolymers as a structure-directing agent or ordered mesoporous silica materials as hard templates. An ordered mesoporous WO_3-X material with high electrical conductivity was employed for use as a supercapacitor electrode in 2.0 M H₂SO₄. The electrode made of mesoporous WO_3-X exhibited a high rate capability and an excellent capacitance (366 Fcm^-2, 639 Fcm^-3), which were attributed to the large ordered mesopores, high electrical conductivity, and high material density. Fe₃O₄ nanocrystals confined in mesocellular carbon foam (MSU-F-C) are synthesized by ‘Host-Guest’ approach and tested as anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). 13-27 nm magnetite Fe3O4 nanocrystals are formed inside ~30 nm pores of mesocellular carbon matrix. Fe₃O₄/MSU-F-C (45 wt% Fe₃O₄) exhibited 1007 mA h g^-1 of first charge (Li de-insertion) capacity at 0.1 A g^-1 and 111% of capacity retention at 150th cycle, and retains 37% capacity at 7 A g^-1 (~7 C rate). For the first time, we synthesized mesostructured LTO/carbon composite (Lithium titanate/carbon) with large (> 15 nm) and uniform pores for high performance LIB anodes via a block copolymer assembly. Sn-mesostructured carbon nanocomposites have been synthesized by simple self-assembly of block copolymers with Tin and carbon precursors.