A melt route for the synthesis of activated carbon derived from carton box for high performance symmetric supercapacitor applications

• Published in: Journal of power sources 2016-03, Vol.307, p.401-409
• Main Authors: Wang, Dewei, Fang, Guoli, Xue, Tong, Ma, Jinfu, Geng, Guihong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activation; Mesopore; Micropore; Supercapacitor; Two-electrode system
• ISSN: 0378-7753; 1873-2755
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2016.01.009

Activated carbon materials have been playing a significant role in addressing the challenges posed with the ever-increasing demand for alternative clean and sustainable energy technologies. In the present study, a facile strategy is proposed for generating porosity in porous carbons by using carton box as the precursor and eutectic NaOH–KOH melt as the activating agent. The prepared carbon materials have a very high specific surface area up to 2731 m2 g−1 with large pore volume of 1.68 cm3 g−1, which is greater than that of only KOH was used at the same mass ratio. Electrochemical studies based on symmetric supercapacitor devices demonstrating that the NaOH–KOH melt activated porous carbon exhibits significantly improved rate capability in the range of 0.5–75 A g−1 despite of the similar specific capacitance with respect to KOH activated carbon at a low current density of 0.5 A g−1. The remarkable deviations in capacitive behavior at high current density for the NaOH–KOH melt activated porous carbon and KOH activated samples highlighting the specific surface area is not the only parameter that determines the capacitive performance especially at high charge–discharge rate. •Activated carbons were prepared using carton box as the precursor.•Eutectic NaOH–KOH melt activated carbon shows better graphitization.•Both large specific capacitance and excellent rate capability were achieved.•The high surface area and mesoporosity is beneficial for ion adsorption and diffusion.