Investigation of porous carbon fabricated by polymer blending of phenolic resin and suberic acid

Abstract

Porous carbons used for electric double-layer capacitors were fabricated by chemical blending and carbonization of phenolic resin (PF) and suberic acid (SA). The reaction of PF with diacid was confirmed by longer wavelength shift of carbonyl stretching peak of diacid in FTIR spectra and higher decomposition temperature of suberic acid in TG curves. The decomposition of suberic acid at high temperature contributed to the formation of micropores in PF resin during carbonization process. The influence of the ratio of PF to SA on pore structure, adsorption behavior and capacity performance was investigated. The specific surface area and total pore volume increase with decrease of ratio of PF to SA at first and then decrease. The maximum specific surface area and total pore volume were obtained at ratio 3, which corresponds to 511 m2 g−1and 0.26 cm3 g−1, respectively. Electrochemical investigation indicates that a satisfactory specific capacitance of 145 Farad g−1 in 30 wt% KOH aqueous electrolytes is obtained. The capacitance maintenance achieves 72% as the current density increases 50 times. Porous carbon with reasonable pore structure was produced by chemical blending of diacid and phenolic resin, which offers a new development direction for preparation of porous carbon materials.