(255b) Pil-Derived Carbon

The development of new carbon-based materials with exquisite control over surface chemistry, carbon structure and form, surface area, pore size, and conductivity is of significant interest for numerous applications, including energy storage (e.g., capacitors). Recently, a few studies have demonstrated the ability to produce carbon from ionic liquids (ILs) and polymerized ionic liquids (PILs), both of which have unique physiochemical properties and result in carbon with various surface chemistries depending on the chemistry of the IL or PIL. However, to date, few studies have explored the relationship between the possible diverse PIL chemistries and the resulting PIL-derived carbon properties. In this study, numerous PILs with various backbone/cation pairings (backbones: ethyl methacrylate, styrene; covalently attached cations: butylimidazolium, trimethylammonium, piperidinium, butylpyrrolidinium, methylpyrrolidinium, pyrrolidinium) were synthesized as carbon precursors. The chemistry and molecular weight of the PILs were characterized using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy, elemental analysis (EA), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). PIL-derived carbons were produced from this set of PILs via pyrolysis at 10 °C/min. The surface chemistry, carbon structure and form, porosity, and conductivity of these PIL-derived carbons were characterized using EA, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and gas sorption measurements. The relationship between PIL chemistry and PIL-derived carbon properties will be discussed, along with the subsequent implications on electrode materials for energy storage applications.