Constructing a Carbon-Encapsulated Carbon Composite Material with Hierarchically Porous Architectures for Efficient Capacitive Storage in Organic Supercapacitors

Abstract

Hierarchical porous activated carbon (HPAC) materials with fascinating porous features are favored for their function as active materials for supercapacitors. However, achieving high mass-loading of the HPAC electrodes remains challenging. Inspired by the concepts of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites and hydrogels, a novel hydrogel-derived HPAC (H-HPAC) encapsulated H-HPAC (H@H) composite material was successfully synthesized in this study. In comparison with the original H-HPAC, it is noticed that the specific surface area and pore parameters of the resulting H@H are observably decreased, while the proportions of nitrogen species are dramatically enhanced. The free-standing and flexible H@H electrodes with a mass-loading of 7.5 mg/cm2 are further prepared for electrochemical measurements. The experiments revealed remarkable reversible capacitance (118.6 F/g at 1 mA/cm2), rate capability (73.9 F/g at 10 mA/cm2), and cycling stability (76.6% of retention after 30,000 cycles at 5 mA) are delivered by the coin-type symmetric cells. The cycling stability is even better than that of the H-HPAC electrode. Consequently, the findings of the present study suggest that the nature of the HPAC surface is a significant factor affecting the corresponding capacitive performances.

Keywords

• supercapacitors
• hierarchical porous activated carbon
• hydrogel
• composite materials
• clean energy technology