(622f) Carbon Derived from Polymerized Ionic Liquids | AIChE

(622f) Carbon Derived from Polymerized Ionic Liquids

Authors 

Sun, R. - Presenter, Texas A&M University
Elabd, Y., Texas A&M University
Meek, K. M., Oak Ridge National Laboratory
The development of new carbon materials with exquisite control over surface chemistry, 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, PILs with various backbone/cation pairings (backbones: ethyl methacrylate, styrene; covalently attached cations: butylimidazolium, trimethylammonium, butylpyrrolidinium) were successfully synthesized as carbon precursors. PIL-derived carbons with metallic luster were produced from this set of PILs via pyrolysis at 900 °C. Higher graphitic content was obtained by PIL-derived carbons compared to polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-derived carbon. Different structures were also observed between PAN-derived carbon (powder form) and PIL-derived carbons (sheet form). Furthermore, results show that cation type has a significant impact on surface area, carbon yield, graphitic content, and surface chemistry of the resulting carbon materials. The design of carbon materials based on a diverse set of PILs with various cation and polymer backbone chemistries may be an effective strategy to optimize carbon properties for its subsequent application in energy storage devices.