Easy preparation of carbon sheets with controlled microstructures from sucrose/layered superabsorbent polymer hydrogels

An easy method is described for fabricating carbon sheets with nanostructures using sucrose as a carbon precursor and a layered superabsorbent polymer (LSAP) as a structure-directing agent. The method is based on the interaction of the three-dimensional polymer networks of the LSAP with a sucrose solution in the hydrogel cells. The synthesis scheme consists of: (a) preparation of the LSAP, (b) preparation of layered hydrogels by immersing the LSAP in the sucrose solution for 2 days, (c) carbonization of the layered hydrogels containing the sucrose solution. The synthesized carbon sheets show different microstructures including petal-like, regular and interleaved types, which can be controlled by simply adjusting the initial concentration of the sucrose solution in the hydrogel cells. Moreover, a formation mechanism for the carbon sheets is proposed.