D-Glucose Derived Micro/Mesoporous Carbons for Ultra-High Rate Supercapacitor Application

The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, the cyclic voltammetry, and the constant power discharge methods have been applied to establish the electrochemical characteristics for the electrical double-layer capacitor consisting of the 1 M (C2H5)(3)CH3NBF4 electrolyte in acetonitrile. The microporous carbon was synthesised by the hydrothermal carbonization method from D-(+)-glucose and subsequent pyrolysis and carbon dioxide activation steps. The total specific surface area (S-BET <= 1539 m(2) g(-1)), micropore surface area (S-micro <= 1534 m(2) g(-1)), total pore volume (V-tot <= 0.694 cm(3) g(-1)) and the pore size distributions, obtained from the N-2 sorption data and using the non-local density functional theory, have been correlated with the electrochemical characteristics for electrical double-layer capacitors as the region of ideal polarizability (Delta E <= 3.0 V), characteristic time constant (0.34 s) and the series capacitance (126 F g(-1)), dependent on the carbon activation conditions, have been calculated.