Self-template synthesis of pitch-based hierarchical porous carbon for high performance supercapacitor in aqueous and ionic liquid electrolytes

Abstract

Pitch-based hierarchical porous carbons (PHPCs) have been fabricated by means of self-templated method that is adopting metal oxides and metallic salts impurities originate from coal tar pitch (CTP) precursor serve as in-situ hard template along with KOH activation. The porosity properties of PHPCs are significantly influenced by the mass ratio of KOH to pitch. The micro-morphology, hierarchical porosity constituted of co-existing micro-/meso-/macropores, specific surface area, surface elementary composition and electrochemical properties have been comprehensively investigated. It is shown that the high specific surface area (2479 m2 g-1), lay-stacked microstructure, hierarchical porosity characteristic and considerable oxygen-containing functional groups (4.51 a.t %) that synergistically facilitate the electrochemical performance of PHPCs. The electrochemical measurements results exhibit that the gravimetric capacitance for the optimal sample PHPCs-4 is as high as 317 F g-1 at a current density of 0.2 A g-1, with retention of 213 F g-1 even at 10 A g-1 in a three-electrode configuration. In a two-electrode device, the PHPCs-4 based symmetric supercapacitor cell exhibits a specific capacitance of 245 F g-1 at 0.1 A g-1, along with a good rate capability of 75.5% (185 F g-1 at 10 A g-1) and a considerable energy density of 8.51Wh kg-1 at a power density of 50 W kg-1. When tested in EMIMBF4 ionic liquid electrolyte at a cell voltage of 3.5 V, the assembled symmetric supercapacitor cell demonstrates a high energy density of 77 Wh kg-1 at a power density of 175 W kg-1, maintaining 65.3 Wh kg-1 at a current density of 1 A g-1, and 32.1 Wh kg-1 at a high power density of 17500 W kg-1. Furthermore, the specific capacitance of the PHPCs-4 based symmetric supercapacitor retains nearly 100% of its initial value over 5000 cycles in 6M KOH aqueous electrolyte and 91.4 % after 2500 cycles in EMIMBF4 ionic liquid electrolyte. This strategy exploits a novel approach to synthesizing hierarchical porous carbons from coal tar pitch using a self-templating method, offering potential benefits for various applications.