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Summary: Extensive use of carbon‐based materials has revolutionised the number of modern scientific areas such as transportation, electronic, material chemistry and electrochemical energy storage, mainly due to their outstanding characteristics such as excellent conductivity, mechanical strength, ease of availability and cost‐effectiveness. However, it is difficult to fine‐tune the physiochemical characteristics of naturally occurring carbonaceous materials according to desired applications. High purity carbon aerogels with control over porous structure prepared using synthetic chemistry techniques such as polymerisation can be a potential substitute carbon material due to their outstanding characteristics including superior conductivity, high level of porosity and chemical inertness. Designing tailored polymeric carbon materials according to their anticipated uses is advantageous and can be achieved by altering various synthesis parameters at the initial stages of preparation. This not only helps in fine tuning porous structure of carbon aerogels but can also assist in producing composite materials by introducing materials on the surface or within the bulk of produced carbons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Porous carbon aerogels are prepared by polycondensation of resorcinol and formaldehyde catalyzed by sodium carbonate followed by carbonization of the resultant aerogels in an inert atmosphere. Pore structure of carbon aerogels is adjusted by changing the molar ratio of resorcinol to catalyst during gel preparation and also pyrolysis under Ar and activation under CO2 atmosphere at different temperatures. The prepared carbons are used as active materials in fabrication of composite carbon electrodes. The electrochemical performance of the electrodes has been tested in a Li/O2 cell. Through the galvanostatic charge/discharge measurements, it is found that the cell performance (i.e. discharge capacity and discharge voltage) depends on the morphology of carbon and a combined effect of pore volume, pore size and surface area of carbon affects the storage capacity. A Li/O2 cell using the carbon with the largest pore volume (2.195cm3/g) and a wide pore size (14.23nm) showed a specific capacity of 1290mAhg−1. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]