Hierarchical porous carbon is a kind of suitable anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs). They exhibit excellent electrochemical properties, for the quantities of micropores may provide accommodations for Li-ions and the mesopores or macropores may shorten the diffusion pathway. Spherical structure is favorable for the electrolyte to enter into the inner of the material from all directions and infiltrate the electrode quickly, thus electrochemical performance, especially the rate performance will be improved greatly.[2] Here, we designed and fabricated hierarchical porous carbon spheres (HPCS) by introducing the mixture of thermoplastic phenolic formaldehyde resin and copper nitrate into the oil phase. The solidification process was carried out while the mixture was stirred with high speed. After carbonization and acidification to remove copper nanoparticles, the final products were obtained. As shown in Fig. 1, the diameter of HPCS was about 10 um. And there were substantial micropores and mesopores which were generated from the occupancy of copper. HPCS showed high specific capacity of 737 mAh/g at the current density of 50 mA/g as anode for LIBs, and remained at ca. 490 mAh/g after 50 cycles (Fig. 2). HPCS should be a promising candidate for anode materials of LIBs.
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