Porous carbons synthesized by templating approach from fluid precursors and their applications in environment and energy storage: A review

Porous carbons have a great potential in the field of environment and energy storage, due to their advantages of wide sources, low cost, tailorable pore structure and abundant surface functional groups, etc. Pore-forming approaches and precursors are two crucial factors for the preparation of porous carbons. Templating approach is greatly important in synthesizing porous carbons due to its ability to tailor pore structure purposefully and precisely. Meanwhile, with miscibility and easily tuned morphology, fluid precursors are optimal candidates to match up with templating approach. Therefore, porous carbons synthesized by templating approach from fluid precursors (PCTF) can be developed with ordered pore structure, controllable morphologies, uniform active sites and functional design. This article reviews the progress in fluid precursors and templating approach and summaries the application of PCTF on environment and energy storage. Fluid precursors including ionic liquids, carbohydrates, oil and others are introduced systemically. Moreover, templating approach including self-generated templating approach, hard templating approach and soft templating approach, is summarized and compared. The applications on air pollution control, water pollution control, supercapacitors and batteries were presented and the current challenges on PCTF to design outstanding porous carbons are discussed throughout the review.