Ultrahigh surface area carbon from carbonated beverages: Combining self-templating process and in situ activation

Ultrahigh surface area carbons (USACs, e.g., >2000 m(2)/g) are attracting tremendous attention due to their outstanding performance in energy-related applications. The state-of-art approaches to USACs involve templating or activation methods and all these techniques show certain drawbacks. In this work, a series of USACs with specific surface areas up to 3633 m(2)/g were prepared in two steps: hydrothermal carbonization (200 degrees C) of carbonated beverages (CBs) and further thermal treatment in nitrogen (600-1000 degrees C). The rich inner porosity is formed by a self-templated process during which acids and polyelectrolyte sodium salts in the beverage formulas make some contribution. This strategy covers various CBs such as Coca Cola (R), Pepsi Cola (R), Dr. Pepper (R), and Fanta (R) and it enables an acceptable product yield (based on sugars), for example: 21 wt% for carbon (2940 m(2)/g) from Coca Cola (R). Being potential electrode materials for supercapacitors, those carbon materials possessed a good specific capacitance (57.2-185.7 F g(-1)) even at a scan rate of 1000 mV s(-1). Thus, a simple and efficient strategy to USACs has been presented. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.