Preparation of High Specific Surface Area Activated Carbon from Semi-Coke for Carbon-Based Supercapacitor Applications

Abstract

With the continuous development of energy storage technology, a device between ordinary capacitors and batteries, with low cost, high performance, and no pollution, is attracting a lot of attention. Common supercapacitors are generally composed of four parts, of which the electrode material as a core part determining the performance of the capacitor, should be selected reasonably. Currently, the most commercially mature electrode materials are still dominated by porous carbon materials. In this paper, we prepared activated carbons with a high specific surface area by a simple chemical activation method using semi-coke, a derivative of coal after dry distillation, and activated at 800 °C. The prepared activated carbons had a specific surface area of 2522 m2g−1 and a pore capacity close to 1.5 cm3g−1. Moreover, the prepared supercapacitors showed excellent specific capacity and better multiplicative performance. This work provides a new inspiration for the preparation of high-performance activated carbon from low-cost semi-coke.