Development of Graphene-like Carbons for Energy Storage and the Sequestration of Lanthanide and Actinide Elements

Porous materials are solids which contains voids also known as pores. Porous materials are used in a variety of applications that require a high surface area as well as controllable pore sizes and pore architectures. Porous silica and carbons can be used in applications like as drug delivery, gas separations, energy storage, and the sequestration of elements. Particularly, porous carbona can be synthesized by chemical vapor deposition and can have exceptional porosity as well as high electrical conductivity. The development of carbons that have both high porosity and high electrical conductivity has surged since the discovery of graphene-like carbons. The ability to form various type of porous carbons and understanding of the underlying growth mechanism is a trending research topic. Furthermore, porous carbons can be used for extracting and selectively separating rare earth elements, which are critical elements vital to the production of magnets, batteries, metals, catalysts, glass, lighting, pigments, ceramics, aerospace products, and various other textiles. Herein various high surface area and electrically conductive porous carbons are synthesized and characterized; and a mechanism for the carbon synthesis is proposed. Then the porous carbons are evaluated for the performance in liquid-solid extractions of lanthanide and actinide elements and supercapacitors applications.