Mesoporous Carbon Composites Containing Carbon Nanostructures: Recent Advances in Synthesis and Applications in...

Carbon nanostructures (CNs) are various low-dimensional allotropes of carbon that have attracted much scientific attention due to their interesting physicochemical properties. It was quickly discovered that the properties of CNs can be significantly improved by modifying their surface or synthesizing composites containing CNs. Composites combine two or more materials to create a final material with enhanced properties compared with their initial components. In this review, we focused on one group of carbon materials-composites containing CNs (carbon/CN composites), characterized by high mesoporosity. Particular attention was paid to the type of synthesis used, divided into hard- and soft-templating methods, the type of polymer matrix precursors and their preparation method, heteroatom doping, pore formation methods, and correlations between the applied experimental conditions of synthesis and the structural properties of the composite materials obtained. In the last part, we present an updated summary of the applications of mesoporous composites in energy storage systems, supercapacitors, electrocatalysis, etc. The correlations among porous structures of materials, heteroatom doping, and electrochemical or catalytic efficiency, including activity, selectivity, and stability, were also emphasized. To our knowledge, a single review has never summarized pyrolyzed mesoporous composites of polymer-CNs, their properties and applications in electrochemistry.