An Ultrastable Porous Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane/Tetraphenylthiophene Hybrid as a High-Performance Electrode for Supercapacitors
Mohsin Ejaz,
Mohamed Gamal Mohamed,
Santosh U. Sharma,
Jyh-Tsung Lee,
Chih-Feng Huang,
Tao Chen,
Shiao-Wei Kuo
Affiliations
Mohsin Ejaz
Department of Materials and Optoelectronic Science, College of Semiconductor and Advanced Technology Research, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Mohamed Gamal Mohamed
Department of Materials and Optoelectronic Science, College of Semiconductor and Advanced Technology Research, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Santosh U. Sharma
Department of Chemistry, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Jyh-Tsung Lee
Department of Chemistry, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Chih-Feng Huang
Department of Chemical Engineering, i-Center for Advanced Science and Technology (iCAST), National Chung Hsing University, 145 Xingda Road, South District, Taichung 40227, Taiwan
Tao Chen
Ningbo Institute of Material Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Shiao-Wei Kuo
Department of Materials and Optoelectronic Science, College of Semiconductor and Advanced Technology Research, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
In this study, we synthesized three hybrid microporous polymers through Heck couplings of octavinylsilsesquioxane (OVS) with 2,5-bis(4-bromophenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (OXD-Br2), tetrabromothiophene (Th-Br4), and 2,5-bis(4-bromophenyl)-3,4-diphenylthiophene (TPTh-Br2), obtaining the porous organic–inorganic polymers (POIPs) POSS-OXD, POSS-Th, and POSS-TPTh, respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and solid state 13C and 29Si NMR spectroscopy confirmed their chemical structures. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed that, among these three systems, the POSS-Th POIP possessed the highest thermal stability (T5: 586 °C; T10: 785 °C; char yield: 90 wt%), presumably because of a strongly crosslinked network formed between its OVS and Th moieties. Furthermore, the specific capacity of the POSS-TPTh POIP (354 F g−1) at 0.5 A g−1 was higher than those of the POSS-Th (213 F g−1) and POSS-OXD (119 F g−1) POIPs. We attribute the superior electrochemical properties of the POSS-TPTh POIP to its high surface area and the presence of electron-rich phenyl groups within its structure.
