Waste polyurethane foam filler-derived mesoporous carbons as superior electrode materials for EDLCs and Zn-ion capacitors

Abstract

Mesoporous carbons with high specific surface area and large pore volume prepared by KOH activation of a construction waste, polyurethane (PU) foam filler, are tested as excellent electrode materials of electrical double layer capacitors (EDLCs) and zinc ion capacitors (ZICs). In both kinds of electrochemical energy storage devices, a higher mesopore volume in the porous carbon electrode materials has been confirmed to be able to improve the energy density at high power density. For the electrode material with a specific surface area of 2807 m2 g−1 and a pore volume of 2.558 cm3 g−1, a high energy density of 21 Wh kg−1 is obtained at a high power density of 21,290 W kg−1 for EDLCs in organic electrolyte, 92.7 Wh kg−1 at 179 W kg−1 and 41 Wh kg−1 at 7264 W kg−1 for ZICs, respectively. Such outstanding electrochemical energy storage performances convincingly demonstrate that the waste PU foam filler can be good raw material of mesoporous carbon electrode materials for high performance capacitor-type energy storage devices.