Ultrafast preparation of saccharide-derived carbon microspheres with excellent dispersibility via ammonium persulfate-assisted hydrothermal carbonization

Porous carbon spheres were extensively studied for their wide application. However, there exists a huge obstacle for their fast formation to improve efficiency and reduce energy consumption. Herein, a very simple ammonium persulfate-assisted superfast carbonization process was successfully realized to hydrothermally prepare carbon microspheres (HTCSs) with excellent dispersity from sucrose. Notably, this highly effective and efficient method can be easily extended to glucose, starch and sunflower seed shells, indicating that it is a universal method for preparing HTCSs from monosaccharides, disaccharides, polysaccharides and waste biomass containing saccharides. Furthermore, these HTCSs could be easily activated with potassium oxalate to obtain porous carbon microspheres (ACSs) which could be used as effective CO2 adsorbents and supercapacitors. Our finding further provides a new method for the ultrafast preparation of ACSs for application in the fields of environmental purification and energy storage.