Carbonylated Porous Carbon from Organic Acid Salts for High-Performance Supercapacitors

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Energy Storage

Background:

• Supercapacitors, especially porous carbon-based electric double-layer capacitors (PC-EDLCs), are vital for advanced energy storage.
• Current methods for PC-EDLCs lack efficiency and control over pore structure and functional groups.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel, energy-efficient, and tunable synthesis strategy for high-performance porous carbon materials.
• To overcome limitations of conventional carbonization-activation methods for PC-EDLCs.

Main Methods:

• A one-step thermal synthesis using self-activation of potassium carboxylate precursors.
• A precarbonization step to enrich oxygen-containing functional groups, followed by activation at 800 °C.

Main Results:

• Achieved a specific capacitance of 279 F g^-1, a significant increase attributed to pseudocapacitance and optimized conductivity.
• The synthesized carbonylated porous carbon demonstrated 93% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles.
• High energy density of 12.8 Wh kg^-1 was recorded.

Conclusions:

• The novel synthesis strategy provides an efficient, energy-saving, and structurally tunable route for high-performance porous carbon materials.
• This method enhances supercapacitor performance by optimizing microstructure and introducing pseudocapacitance.