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 2days, (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.