Microbial Porous Carbon by Low-Alkali Activation for Flexible Supercapacitors

Chlorella is a genus of algae widely distributed in fresh water, with high yield and low cost. In this work, using a green and low-alkali approach, high-economic-value porous carbon is transformed from Chlorella precursor, revealing superior electrochemical performance. More precisely, Chlorella, with an intrinsic micron-scale structure, provides a good basis for the preparation of carbon materials with high specific surface area. Then, various components (proteins, fats, vitamins and others) of algae provide a large number of heteroatomic defects and surface functional groups after carbonization, thus offering additional pseudocapacitance of porous carbon. Finally, low-alkali activation reduces the corrosive damage to equipment, confirming the environmental protection trend.