Applications In Electrochemical Energy Storage Devices Research Articles

Cover Picture: Pumpkin‐Derived Porous Carbon for Supercapacitors with High Performance (Chem. Asian J. 12/2016)

Pumpkin is employed for the first time successfully as a renewable and low-cost precursor to prepare porous carbon with excellent performance. This approach has many advantages for production on a large scale. The synthetic material exhibits a high specific capacitance of 419 F g−1 as well as high energy density of 22.1 W h kg−1 in an aqueous electrolyte. Thus, the prepared material holds great promise for applications in electrochemical energy-storage devices. More information can be found in the Full Paper by Dan Xiao et al. on page 1828 in Issue 12, 2016 (DOI: 10.1002/asia.201600303).

Pumpkin-Derived Porous Carbon for Supercapacitors with High Performance.

Pumpkin has been employed for the first time as a renewable, low-cost precursor for the preparation of porous carbon materials with excellent performance. Unlike most other precursors, pumpkin is rich in sugars and starch, and it has advantageous properties for large-scale production. The as-prepared materials adopted a unique morphology that consisted of numerous fused sphere-like carbon grains with a high specific surface area (2968 m(2) g(-1) ), abundant micro and mesopores, and excellent electrochemical properties. The pumpkin-derived activated carbon (PAC) material not only exhibited a high specific capacitance of 419 F g(-1) , but also showed considerable cycling stability, with 93.6 % retention after 10 000 cycles. Moreover, a symmetrical supercapacitor that was based on PAC showed a high energy density of 22.1 W h kg(-1) in aqueous electrolyte. These superior properties demonstrate that PAC holds great promise for applications in electrochemical energy-storage devices.