Improving control of carbide-derived carbon microstructure by immobilization of a transition-metal catalyst within the shell of carbide/carbon core–shell structures

Carbon materials for electrical energy devices, such as battery electrodes or fuel-cell catalysts, require the combination of the contradicting properties of graphitic microstructure and porosity. The usage of graphitization catalysts during the synthesis of carbide-derived carbon materials results in materials that combine the required properties, but controlling the microstructure during synthesis remains a challenge. In this work, the controllability of the synthesis route is enhanced by immobilizing the transition-metal graphitization catalyst on a porous carbon shell covering the carbide precursor prior to conversion of the carbide core to carbon. The catalyst loading was varied and the influence on the final material properties was characterized by using physisorption analysis with nitrogen as well as carbon dioxide, X-ray diffraction, temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO), Raman spectroscopy, SEM and TEM. The results showed that this improved route allows one to greatly vary the crystallinity and pore structure of the resulting carbide-derived carbon materials. In this sense, the content of graphitic carbon could be varied from 10–90 wt % as estimated from TPO measurements and resulting in a specific surface area ranging from 1500 to 300 m2·g−1