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High-Performance Porous Carbon Electrode Materials Derived from Air Pre-oxidation of Anthracite Supplemented with KOH Activation for Supercapacitors

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Abstract

In this study, we report the development of a porous activated carbon electrode (PACE) material for supercapacitors, derived from anthracite carbonized at high temperatures in an argon atmosphere. Our approach involves a facile air pre-oxidation process, followed by KOH activation, to significantly enhance the material's specific surface area and porosity. The pre-oxidation treatment effectively increased the specific surface area to 1555.1 m2 g−1, resulting in a large number of micropores and mesopores. Moreover, this treatment effectively modulated the structure of small-to-medium-sized pores (2–4 nm) in the PACE samples, ensuring sufficient charge storage capacity and rapid electrolyte ion transport. The optimal sample, C-Pre-2h, demonstrated remarkable cycling stability, with 100% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles, and a high specific capacitance of 272.1 F g−1 at 1 A g−1. A symmetric supercapacitor based on C-Pre-2h exhibited a substantial energy density of 10.11 Wh kg−1 at 256 W kg−1, alongside a high power density of 25,641 W kg−1 at 3.16 Wh kg−1. This work presents a cost-effective porous carbon material with exceptional cycling stability and superior performance for supercapacitor applications.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Key Research and Development Project of Sichuan Province, China (Grant No. 2017GZ0396), Sichuan Science and Technology Program (Grant No. 2022ZYD0016), Guizhou Science and Technology Program (Grant No. [2020]2Y063-2020QT) and the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities.

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  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoyan Xiang, Yueming Lin, Bo Li, Shilin Sun & Xiaohong Zhu

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Xiang, X., Lin, Y., Li, B. et al. High-Performance Porous Carbon Electrode Materials Derived from Air Pre-oxidation of Anthracite Supplemented with KOH Activation for Supercapacitors. J. Electron. Mater. 52, 6172–6181 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-023-10551-2

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