Highly mesoporous carbon with high capacitance from carbonization of phenol-formaldehyde resin

Porous carbon material with high surface area and highly mesoporous structure has been successfully prepared from phenol-formaldehyde resin by combining Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) and ZnCl2 as activation agents. The as-prepared carbon material exhibits large specific double layer capacitance of 122 Fg(-1) at 120 mA g(-1) in the electrolyte of 1 M Et4NBF4/PC, which is attributed to its high specific surface area and well-developed mesopores. Moreover, it can retain as high as 86.88% of its initial specific capacitance, when the specific current increases from 120 mA g(-1) to 2Ag(-1). It is also found that the energy density of this material still maintains up to 21.2 Wh kg(-1) the power density of 2400 W kg(-1). (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.