Robust, conductive ordered mesoporous films based on carbon-silica composites

Published

April 22, 2009

Author(s)

Lingyan Song, Dan Feng, Casey G. Campbell, Aaron M. Forster, Dongyuan Zhao, Bryan D. Vogt

Abstract

Mesoporous carbon-based sensors have been demonstrated to have enhanced electrochemical response as a result of their large interfacial area. To date, mesoporous carbon powders held together by a polymeric binder have been typically utilized. However for ease of processing into devices, a particulate-free, conducting mesoporous film is desired, but the intrinsic fragility of mesoporous carbon films is a barrier to their direct utilization in sensor applications. In this work, we describe a facile approach to improve the robustness of conductive mesoporous films by the addition of silica to a carbon matrix through the reactive co-assembly of resol (carbon precursor) and tetraorthosilicate with triblock copolymer Pluronic F127. The pyrolysis of the resol-silica-pluronic F127 film yields a porous film with well defined pore size. The addition of silica to the matrix impacts the pore size, porosity, modulus and conductivity. For films with approximately 40 wt% silica, the conductivity is decreased by approximately an order of magnitude in comparison to a pure carbon mesoporous film, but the conductivity is comparable to typical printed carbon inks used in electrochemical sensing. The mechanical properties of these mesoporous silica-carbon hybrid films are similar to the pure carbon analogs, but the material is significantly more porous. Moreover, the addition of silica to the matrix improves the adhesion of the mesoporous film to a silicon wafer. These silica-carbon composite mesoporous films hold significant promise for sensing applications.

Citation

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Mesostructure, silica-carbon composite, self-assembly, Sol-gel, nanoindentation

Citation

Song, L. , Feng, D. , Campbell, C. , Forster, A. , Zhao, D. and Vogt, B. (2009), Robust, conductive ordered mesoporous films based on carbon-silica composites, Journal of the American Chemical Society (Accessed October 8, 2025)