Mesoporous Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Materials with Frank-Kasper Phases Templated by an Unusual Linear Symmetry Diblock Copolymer

In this study the authors used an unusual linear symmetric poly(ethylene oxide-b-caprolactone) (PEO-b-PCL) diblock copolymer as a template within phenolic/double-decker silsesquioxane (DDSQ) hybrids to synthesize mesoporous phenolic/DDSQ materials having Frank-Kasper (FK) phases (e.g., σ, A15, H, and Z phases). These FK structures are the first to have been prepared using a block copolymer and the first to exist in mesoporous materials. The authors' mesoporous carbon/DDSQ hybrids displayed high capacitance (764 F g^-1 at a current of 0.5 A g^-1 and 98.4% capacitance retention over 2000 cycles), arising from their high surface areas, high pore volumes, and tunable concentrations of N, O, and Si heteroatoms.