Structural Design and Mechanism Analysis of Hierarchically Porous Carbon Fiber for Advanced Energy and Environmental Applications

Hierarchically porous carbon fiber (PCF) combining structural and functional features of commercial carbon fibers and porous carbonaceous materials has created extensive interests in energy conversion/storage, catalysis, adsorption/separation, sensing and other applications. The structures, morphologies and compositions of PCF as well as the corporation with active materials are considered as crucial to boost the performance in energy and environmental area. However, PCF, as a relatively new material, its synthesis routes as well as characteristic development are still limited. This review focuses on the structural design and mechanism analysis of PCFs with five major porous structures and their superior application profiles. We firstly summarize the primary strategies to access and control the porosities and morphologies of PCFs. Subsequently, improvement mechanisms of PCF for the performance of various applications are comprehensively discussed, and emerging strategies to further enhance their properties by utilizing the synergistic effect with heteroatom doping and guest active material hybridization are highlighted. Finally, this review demostrates the major challenges in structural design and mechanism exploration of PCFs for their different applications and provide an overall perspective for the future development of advanced PCF-based devices.