Hierarchical porous carbon materials derived from petroleum pitch for high-performance supercapacitors

Abstract

In this work, a honeycomb-like carbon material derived from petroleum pitch was synthesized by a simple one-step carbonization/activation method using silica nanospheres as the hard templates. The obtained hierarchical porous carbon materials (HPCs) with a large specific surface area and uniform macropore distribution provide abundant active sites and sufficient ion migration channels. When used as an electrode material for supercapacitors, the HPCs exhibit a high specific capacitance of 341.0 F g−1 at 1 A g−1, excellent rate capability with a capacitance retention of 55.6% at 50 A g−1 (189.5 F g−1), and outstanding cycling performance in the three-electrode system.