Zinc tartrate oriented hydrothermal synthesis of microporous carbons for high performance supercapacitor electrodes

A novel zinc tartrate oriented hydrothermal synthesis of microporous carbons was reported. Zinc organic complex obtained via a simple chelation reaction of zinc ions and tartaric acid is introduced into the networks of resorcinol/formaldehyde polymer under hydrothermal condition. After carbonization process, the resultant microporous carbons achieve high surface area (up to 1255 m(2)/g) and large mean pore size (1.99 nm) which guarantee both high specific capacitance (225 F/g at 1.0 A/g) and fast charge/discharge operation (20 A/g) when used as a supercapacitor electrode. Besides, the carbon electrode shows good cycling stability, with similar to 93% capacitance retention at 1.0 A/g after 1000 cycles. The well designed and high-performance microporous carbons provide important prospects for supercapacitor applications. (C) 2016 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.