Flax-Derived Carbon: A Highly Durable Electrode Material for Electrochemical Double-Layer Supercapacitors

Owing to their low cost, good performance, and high lifetime stability, activated carbons (ACs) with a large surface area rank among the most popular materials deployed in commercially available electrochemical double-layer (EDLC) capacitors. Here, we report a simple two-step synthetic procedure for the preparation of activated carbon from natural flax. Such ACs possess a very high specific surface area (1649 m² g^-1) accompanied by a microporous structure with the size of pores below 2 nm. These features are behind the extraordinary electrochemical performance of flax-derived ACs in terms of their high values of specific capacitance (500 F g^-1 at a current density of 0.25 A g^-1 in the three-electrode setup and 189 F g^-1 at a current density of 0.5 A g^-1 in two-electrode setup.), high-rate stability, and outstanding lifetime capability (85% retention after 150,000 charging/discharging cycles recorded at the high current density of 5 A g^-1). These findings demonstrate that flax-based ACs have more than competitive potential compared to standard and commercially available activated carbons.