The fast condensation rate of vanadia sols and rapid crystallization of vanadia at modest temperatures creates a challenge for the synthesis of ordered mesoporous vanadia through cooperative assembly with surfactants or block copolymers. Even when the cooperative assembly is successful, vanadia crystallization through the pores formed by the block copolymer tends to disrupt the ordered structure and significantly decrease the porosity.In this work, we modify the typical synthesis procedure with the addition of an oligomeric phenolic resin that can also assemble with the block copolymer template. The phenolic resin provides a significant carbon yield that can mitigate the breakthrough crystalization of the vanadia at sufficient loadings. A systematic investigation of the impact of resol content on the ordered structure will be presented for the initial assembly and the carbonized structure.  These structures can also be fabricated in thin films with the morphology investigated with AFM and GISAXS.  A significant improvement in the ordered structure can be clearly observed when phenolic resin (resol) is added to the sol. Finally, we will present the electrochemical properties of these porous composites with an eye towards supercapacitor applications. Structure-property relationships for these composite materials will be discussed with respect to idealized morphology for supercapacitors with porous vanadia-carbon composite electrodes.

Triconstituent assembly of vanadia sol, phenolic resin, and block copolymers for electrochemically active nanoporous vanadia-carbons

246th National Meeting (2013)

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