Preparation of Cork-derived Porous Activated Carbon for High Performance Supercapacitors

doi:10.15541/jim20180426

Abstract

Abstract:

The quercus variabilis cork made up of cavity cells is used as raw material. Herein, the cork-derived activated carbon with the various pores was successfully prepared by the facile carbonization of cork followed by chemical activation. The as-prepared activated carbon sheets possess large specific surface area (2312 m ²/g) and unique interconnected pores. As a result, it shows excellent electrochemical performance as electrode material for supercapacitors. In three electrode system of KOH, it exhibits a high specific capacitance of 296 F/g at a current density of 0.1 A/g. The assembled symmetric supercapacitor shows a high specific capacitance of 201 F/g at 5 A/g, with a good cycling stability of 99.5 % capacitance retention after 5000 cycles. In two electrode system of Na₂SO₄, the symmetric supercapacitor displays a good rate performance of 80.5% retention from 0.5 A/g (174 F/g) to 50 A/g (140 F/g) and a high energy density of 19.62 Wh/kg.

Key words: cork, activated carbon, interconnected pores, supercapacitor

CLC Number:

O613

Wei-Jia XU, Da-Ping QIU, Shi-Qiang LIU, Min LI, Ru YANG. Preparation of Cork-derived Porous Activated Carbon for High Performance Supercapacitors[J]. Journal of Inorganic Materials, 2019, 34(6): 625-632.

Figures/Tables 11

Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of the preparation process for cork-derived porous activated carbon sheets and application of supercapacitor

Fig. 2 TG/DTG curves of raw cork in a flow of nitrogen gas

Fig. 3 (a, d) SEM and (b, c, e, f) TEM images of (a-c) CC and (d-f) COAC-4.5

Fig. 4 (a) N2 (77 K) adsorption/desorption isotherms and (b) pore size distribution curves of COAC-n samples

Table S1 Porosity parameters of the COAC-n samples

Samples	S_BET/ (m²?g^-1)	^aD_ave/ nm	V_t/ (cm³?g^-1)	DFT Method
Samples	S_BET/ (m²?g^-1)	^aD_ave/ nm	V_t/ (cm³?g^-1)	S_{<1 nm}/ (m²?g^-1)	S_{1-2 nm}/ (m²?g^-1)	S_{2-4 nm}/ (m²?g^-1)	V_{<1 nm}/ (cm³?g^-1)	V_{1-2 nm}/ (cm³?g^-1)	V_{2-4 nm}/ (cm³?g^-1)
COAC-3.5	1044	2.19	0.57	1097	115	29	0.34	0.08	0.04
COAC-4.0	2169	2.20	1.19	975	554	221	0.33	0.37	0.26
COAC-4.5	2312	2.22	1.28	1191	485	247	0.40	0.35	0.29
COAC-5.0	1929	2.18	1.05	1087	423	172	0.36	0.29	0.21

Fig. 5 XRD patterns of the COAC-n samples

Fig. 6 (a) XPS spectra of COAC-n, (b) C1s and (c) O1s XPS spectra of COAC-4.5

Table S2 C, O and N contents of COAC-n samples from XPS analysis

Samples	N/at%	C/at%	O/at%	O-I/at%	O-II/at%	O-III/at%
COAC-3.5	—	86.65	13.35	5.85	4.58	2.92
COAC-4.0	1.42	81.51	17.07	7.87	5.78	3.42
COAC-4.5	1.34	86.12	12.54	4.04	3.77	4.73
COAC-5.0	1.37	82.79	15.84	7.78	5.24	2.82

Fig. 7 Electrochemical performance characteristics of COAC-n measured in a three-electrode system in the 6 mol/L KOH electrolyte: CV curves at (a) 1 mV/s and (b) 200 mV/s; (c) Galvanostatic charge/discharge curves at a current density of 0.1 A/g; (d) Specific capacitances at different current densities; (e) Nyquist plots in the frequency range from 10 kHz to 10 mHz with inset showing magnified figure of arc part

Fig. S1 Electrochemical performance of COAC-4.5 measured in two electrode system with 6 mol/L KOH electrolyte:(a), (b) CV curves at different scan rates; (c) Galvanostatic charge-discharge curves at different current densities; (d) Specific capacitances for a single electrode at different current densities; (e) Ragone plot of the symmetrical system; (f) Cycling stability at a current density of 5 A/g and inset is the charge-discharge curves of first cycle and 5000th cycle

Fig. S2 Electrochemical performance of COAC-4.5 measured in two electrode system with 1 mol/L Na2SO4 electrolyte: (a) CV curves of the cell operated in different voltage windows at a scan rate of 50 mV/s; (b) Galvanostatic charge/discharge curves of the cell at various current densities; (c) Specific capacitances for a single electrode at different current densities; (d) Ragone plot of COAC-4.5 and other carbon-based symmetrical supercapacitors

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