Engineering the Morphology of Carbon Materials: 2D Porous Carbon Nanosheets for High-Performance Supercapacitors

Compared with traditional porous carbon materials, two-dimensional (2D) porous carbon materials with a high aspect ratio and a continuous hierarchical porous structure are promising candidates for the construction of supercapacitor electrode materials. Herein, well-defined, graphene-based conjugated microporous polymer sheets (G-CMPs) were prepared in a graphene-inspired synthetic strategy. Thereby, 4-iodophenyl-substituted graphene (RGO-I) templates not only effectively hinder the aggregation between the adjacent graphene layers but also provide an efficient template for the growth of porous CMPs onto the graphene surface. Moreover, our G-CMPs could be converted into 2D porous carbon nanosheets by pyrolysis. The synergism of high aspect ratio and high specific surface area, the presence of graphene-based conduction paths and hierarchical pore systems ensure a high ion-accessible surface area of the corresponding supercapacitor electrodes thus allowing accelerated electron and ion diffusion/transport and leading to high specific capacitance as well as good rate capability and cycling stability.