Synthesis of 3D porous carbon based on cheap polymers and graphene foam for high-performance electrochemical capacitors

A scalable production of high surface area nanoporous carbon material (similar to 2994 m(2) g(-1)) with good distribution of micro-, meso- and macro-pores was hydrothermally synthesized using both cheap polymers and graphene foam as carbon sources. The as synthesised material shows a unique interconnected porous graphitic structure. The electrochemical double-layer capacitor fabricated from this nanoporous carbon material exhibited a superior supercapacitive performance of 188 F g(-1) at current density 0.5 A g(-1). This corresponded to areal capacitance of 6.3 mu F cm(-2) coupled with a high energy of 0.56 mu Wh cm(-2) (16.71 Wh kg(-1)) and a power density of 13.39 mu W cm(-2) (401 mu W kg(-1)) due to extended potential window of 16V in KOH aqueous electrolyte. Moreover, no capacitance loss after 10,000 cycles was observed, owing to the unique structure and large surface area of the active material. The outstanding performance of this material as supercapacitor electrode shows that it has great potential for high performance energy-related applications. (C) Crown Copyright 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.