Thermally induced phase separation strategy for constructing porous polymer precursors and modulating hierarchical pore structure of carbon materials

Porous carbon materials have demonstrated significant research value in fields such as energy storage, catalytic reactions, and adsorption and separation. Traditional preparation methods, such as the template method, suffer from issues including complex processes, difficulty in removing the template, and structural collapse, which severely limit the controllability of material performance, the feasibility of large-scale production, and the sustainability of practical applications. Thermally induced phase separation (TIPS), an emerging precursor-shaping technology, offers unique advantages in the preparation of porous carbon materials due to its template-free nature, controllable porosity, simplicity of doping, and scalability. This paper summarizes the TIPS approach for preparing porous carbon materials and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of TIPS compared to traditional methods. It examines how liquid-liquid and solid-liquid phase separations are crucial to shaping the initial pore structure during the TIPS process. It elucidates the precise-control mechanisms governing precursor porosity, which are influenced by factors such as polymer systems, diluent selection, cooling rates, quenching temperatures, roughening times, and additives. It further explores the inheritance effects from the precursor structure to the resulting carbon material structure, discusses the relationship between activation methods and carbonization temperatures and their effects on framework evolution and pore changes, and focuses on the structure-property relationship between pore structures and applications. This review aims to provide theoretical guidance for the preparation of porous carbon materials via the TIPS method and their structural design, thereby promoting their application in fields such as energy, the environment, and catalysis.