Simple synthesis of porous carbon materials for high-performance supercapacitors

Abstract Porous carbon materials have been prepared by direct carbonization of potassium stearate in inert atmosphere without any further activation. The porous carbon materials exhibited a typical hierarchical pore size distribution, thereby rendering them the excellent supercapacitive performance. All electrochemical measurements were performed in a three-electrode system using 6 M KOH as the electrolyte. CK800 can deliver a high specific capacitance of 208 F g −1 (36.1 µF cm −2 ) at a current density of 0.5 A g −1 . As the current density increased up to 30 A g −1 , a high specific capacitance of 120 F g −1 (20.8 µF cm −2 ) still can be maintained. 90.86 % of the specific capacitance was retained even after 5000 charge/discharge cycles at a current density of 2 A g −1 . Graphical Abstract