Hierarchical porous carbon with ordered straight micro-channels templated by continuous filament glass fiber arrays for high performance supercapacitors

Abstract

Hierarchical porous carbon with highly ordered straight micro-channels was prepared though a facile melt vacuum infiltration method using continuous filament glass fiber arrays as the template and glucose as the precursor. The as-prepared carbon material shows high specific surface areas up to 1880 m² g⁻¹ profited from the unique structure of straight micro-channels. A fine pore structure is formed in the channel wall through KOH activation after the removal of the glass fiber array. Electrochemical evaluation of the carbon material indicates that the hierarchical porous carbon exhibits a high specific capacitance of 283 F g⁻¹ at a current density of 0.25 A g⁻¹ with an alkaline electrolyte (6 M KOH) in a three-electrode system. It also demonstrates excellent cycling stability with a capacity retention of 88.5% over 10 000 cycles at a high current density of 6 A g⁻¹. These exciting results demonstrate a very simple and low-cost method for large-scale preparation of electrode materials for supercapacitors.