Fabrication of porous carbon micropillars using a block copolymer as porogen

✍ Scribed by Varun Penmatsa; Jung-Hoon Yang; Yan Yu; Chunlei Wang

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 901 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-6223
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2010.07.019

✦ Synopsis

A technique to fabricate porous carbon micropillars using a block copolymer, F127, as porogen is described. In this process, negative tone photoresist (i.e. SU-8) mixed with F127 was photopatterned and carbonized under inert atmosphere. The thermal behavior of the photoresist precursor (F127 + SU-8) during carbonization process was characterized using differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis. Texture analysis on the carbon surface showed a mesoporous feature distribution. Electrochemical characterization based on the reaction of FeðCNÞ 3À 6 =FeðCNÞ 4À 6 redox couple was utilized to study the change in the effective surface area (A eff ) of the porous carbon electrodes with different weight percentages of F127 in SU-8. These results indicated that porous carbon thin film electrodes derived from 10% F127 mixed in SU-8 had an A eff 185% compared to the conventional photoresist derived carbon electrode. This fabrication approach can be employed to produce reproducible high aspect ratio carbon microelectrodes with different shapes for various electrochemical devices.