A volume-porous conductive electrode by hexagonal close packing of phenolic resin-based carbon spheres

•A volume-porous electrode is to carbonize a close packing of phenolic resin spheres.•Liquid or gas fluid flow is allowed through the pore spaces of the electrode.•Well-controlled and uniformly-distributed pores of triangle-shape are comprised.•A amorphous carbon of high purity above 99.9% is formed.•High porosity of about 37% and high conductivity above 5.05 Scm−1 are resulted. This paper describes a volume-porous electrode by carbonizing a hexagonally close packing of phenolic resin spheres. The proposed volume-porous electrode comprises an amorphous carbon of high purity above 99.9% and its triangle-shape pores, which are controllable according to phenolic-resin-sphere size, are uniformly distributed in three dimensions. In addition, this volume-porous electrode has a porosity of about 37% and high conductivity above 5.05 Scm−1, and it allows fluid (liquid or gas) to flow through a volume of the electrode in three orthogonal directions.