Abstract
The pollution from acid treatment process in the preparation process of hierarchical porous carbons is a substantial challenge for industrial application of supercapacitors (SCs), which necessitates the development of green alternative technologies. In this work, S-doped hierarchical porous carbons (S-HPCs) are prepared from cheap coal tar pitch by a less harmful in situ KHCO3 activation strategy. The sample obtained at 800°C (S-HPC800) possesses 3D framework structure with hierarchical pores, large specific surface area (1485 m2 g-1) and O, S-containing functional groups. Due to these synergistic characteristics, SHPC800 as supercapacitor electrode exhibits high specific capacitance of 246 F g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 with a capacitance retention of 68.3% at 40 A g-1 and excellent cycle stability with 96.7% capacitance retention after 10, 000 charge-discharge cycles. This work provides an environmentally friendly approach to prepare advanced carbon-based electrode materials from industrial by-products for energy storage devices.
Highlights
Owing to the exhaustion of fossil fuels and the worsening environmental pollution, stable and renewable energy sources are highly desired in recent years [1]
We report an eco-friendly method to prepare S-doped hierarchical porous carbons (S-HPCs) from Coal tar pitch (CTP)
The sample obtained at 800°C (S-HPC800) featuring three-dimensional (3D) structure is composed of interconnected carbon capsules and sheets with abundant active sites for fast ion adsorption
Summary
Owing to the exhaustion of fossil fuels and the worsening environmental pollution, stable and renewable energy sources are highly desired in recent years [1]. Electrochemical energy storage (EES) devices which can efficiently utilize clean resources attract the researchers’ attention. According to the energy storage mechanism, SCs can be divided into electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs) and pseudocapacitors [5]. EDLCs and pseudocapacitors store energy through reversible ion adsorption and fast redox reactions at the surface of electrode materials, respectively. Electrode materials play a vital role in the performance of SCs. Carbon materials are considered as the most promising electrode materials in virtue of their good electrical conductivity and high specific surface area [6]. Pure carbon electrode materials still have great limitations in terms of electrochemical performance. Structural optimization and surface modification of pure carbon materials suit the remedy to the case
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