Three-dimensional interconnected porous graphitic carbon derived from rice straw for high performance supercapacitors

Abstract

Three-dimensional interconnected porous graphitic carbon materials are synthesized via a combination of graphitization and activation process with rice straw as the carbon source. The physicochemical properties of the three-dimensional interconnected porous graphitic carbon materials are characterized by Nitrogen adsorption/desorption, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy and Transmission electron microscopy. The results demonstrate that the as-prepared carbon is a high surface area carbon material (a specific surface area of 3333 m2 g−1 with abundant mesoporous and microporous structures). And it exhibits superb performance in symmetric double layer capacitors with a high specific capacitance of 400 F g−1 at a current density of 0.1 A g−1, good rate performance with 312 F g−1 under a current density of 5 A g−1 and favorable cycle stability with 6.4% loss after 10000 cycles at a current density of 5 A g−1 in the aqueous electrolyte of 6M KOH. Thus, rice straw is a promising carbon source for fabricating inexpensive, sustainable and high performance supercapacitors' electrode materials.