Microfluidic production of porous carbon spheres with tunable size and pores

Abstract

Porous carbon particles have been widely used in many areas including energy storage. Production of carbon microspheres in an efficient, controlled, and low-cost manner, however, is challenging. Here, we demonstrate a microfluidic approach to generate porous carbon particles using inexpensive precursors and show that the size of the particle and pores can be tuned by adjusting the deionized (DI) water content in droplets and preheating temperature. The developed strategy offers an effective approach to control the production of porous carbon spheres with a well-defined diameter, narrow size distribution and pore size.