A hierarchical porous carbon membrane from polyacrylonitrile/polyvinylpyrrolidone blending membranes: Preparation, characterization and electrochemical capacitive performance

Novel hierarchical porous carbon membranes were fabricated through a simple carbonization procedure of well-defined blending polymer membrane precursors containing the source of carbon polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and an additive of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), which was prepared using phase inversion method. The as-fabricated materials were further used as the active electrode materials for supercapacitors. The effects of PVP concentration in the casting solution on structure feature and electrochemical capacitive performance of the as-prepared carbon membranes were also studied in detail. As the electrode material for supercapacitor, a high specific capacitance of 278.0 F/g could be attained at a current of 5 mA/cm(2) and about 92.90% capacity retention could be maintained after 2000 charge/discharge cycles in 2 mol/L KOH solution with a PVP concentration of 0.3 wt% in the casting solution. The facile hierarchical pore structure preparation method and the good electrochemical capacitive performance make the prepared carbon membrane particularly promising for use in supercapacitor.