Facile Synthesis of Porous Carbon Via Self‐Activation of Potassium Acetate for High‐Performance Supercapacitor Electrodes with Excellent Cyclic Stability

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The capacitance of an electric double‐layer capacitor (EDLC) is largely determined by the surface area and the electrical conductivity of the electrode material. To enhance the performance of EDLCs, a separate activation procedure is commonly used to increase the porosity of the electrode. A facile and scalable method of producing highly porous carbon electrodes for high‐performance supercapacitors without a separate activation procedure via simple thermal treatment of potassium acetate is reported. Potassium acetate‐derived carbon (PAC) exhibits a high specific surface area of 1704 m2 g−1 and superior electrical conductivity of 22 950 S cm−1 without further treatment. When used for EDLC electrodes, PAC displays a high specific capacitance of 195 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 and excellent cyclic stability with capacitance retention of 99.0% over 80 000 charge/discharge cycles. Carbonization and simultaneous self‐activation of PAC demonstrates a facile and efficient method of producing carbon electrodes with a high surface area without an additional activation procedure, which provides an efficient solution for producing high‐performance supercapacitor electrodes at low cost.