Activation of ordered mesoporous carbon orientates the development and application of new carbonaceous supercapacitor materials with high energy density and power density. Ordered mesoporous carbons FDU-15 are synthesized in large scale via a soft template method through evaporation induced self-assembly of mesostructure on the sacrificed polyurethane foam. Common activating agent potassium hydroxide (KOH) is utilized to improve the surface area and tailor the pore texture of the ordered mesoporous carbon by adjusting KOH/carbon mass ratio as well as activation time. At low KOH/carbon ratio, the generated micropores increase in volume and either connect to other micropores or eventually become mesopores. At high KOH/carbon ratio, an excess amount of micropores would be generated. Meanwhile, the continuous shrinkage of carbon framework is carried through as prolonged time at high activation temperature. Competition between KOH etching and shrinkage of mesopores is existed during the activation. The latter obviously preponderates over the former at low KOH/carbon ratio, which is reversed at high KOH/carbon ratio. Thus, an optimized micro-mesostructure is achieved under certain activation conditions: maintained ordered mesostructure, suitable microporosity, high surface area (1410 m² g⁻¹) and large pore volume (0.73 cm³ g⁻¹). The activated sample exhibits improved electrochemical behavior with a gravimetric capacitance of 200 F/g, excellent rate performance and good cycling stability with capacitance retention of ∼98% over 300 cycles.

Ordered mesoporous carbon materials with magnetic frameworks have been synthesized via a “one-pot” block-copolymer self-assembly strategy associated with a direct carbonization process from resol, ferric citrate and triblock copolymer F127. The effects of iron loading on framework, pore features and magnetic properties of the resultant mesostructured maghemite/carbon composites were investigated by SAXS, WXRD, TEM, N₂ sorption, TG and magnetometer measurements. The results show that the mesoporous nanocomposites with a low γ-Fe₂O₃ content (such as 9.0 wt%) possess an ordered 2-D hexagonal (p6mm) structure, uniform mesopores (∼4.0 nm), high surface areas (up to 590 m²/g) and pore volumes (up to 0.48 cm³/g). Maghemite nanocrystals with a small particle size (∼9.3 nm) are confined in the matrix of amorphous carbon frameworks. With the increase in γ-Fe₂O₃ content, the surface area and pore volume of the nanocomposites decrease. The particle size of the γ-Fe₂O₃nanocrystals increases up to 13.1 nm. The iron oxide particles can extend from the carbon walls into mesopore channels, and hence bring a rough pore surface and gradually break down the mesoscopic regularity. The maghemite/carbon nanocomposites exhibit excellent superparamagnetic behaviors. The saturation magnetization strength can be easily adjusted from 2.5 to 12.1 emu/g by increasing the content of γ-Fe₂O₃. Further H₂O₂oxidation treatment of the magnetic nanocomposites endows plenty of oxygen-containing functional groups on the carbon surface, which improves their hydrophilic properties efficiently. The γ-Fe₂O₃ particles, embedding into the carbon matrix, show high stability during the H₂O₂oxidation process. Such modified nanocomposites with hydrophilic and magnetic framework show evidently improved adsorption properties of water and fuchsin base dye molecules in water and an easy separation procedure.