Synthesis of hierarchical porous carbons for supercapacitors from coal tar pitch with nano-Fe2O3 as template and activation agent coupled with KOH activation

Hierarchical porous carbons (HPCs) for supercapacitors were synthesized from coal tar pitch using nano-sized γ-Fe2O3 as a template and activation agent coupled with KOH activation by conventional and microwave heating. The HPCs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, N2 adsorption and X-ray diffraction techniques. The results show that the specific surface area (SBET) of HPCs is tunable, and increases from 761 m2 g−1 to 1330 m2 g−1 as the mass ratio of γ-Fe2O3 to the pitch increases in the mixture. The nano-sized γ-Fe2O3 is reduced to Fe3O4, FeO, Fe in the activation reaction step. The carbon dioxide generated from the oxidation reactions of carbon monoxide via γ-Fe2O3 reacts with carbon that is a kind of in situ physical activation, which results in the development of the porosity in HPCs. The large SBET in HPCs are due to the synergistic effects including γ-Fe2O3 template, KOH chemical activation, and physical activation resulting from the reactions of γ-Fe2O3 and KOH activation. Under optimum conditions with the mass of coal tar pitch, γ-Fe2O3, KOH at 4.2 g, 16.8 g and 6 g, the HPC made by conventional heating shows a high capacitance of 194 F g−1 in 6 M KOH aqueous electrolyte and an energy density of 20.3 Wh kg−1 in 1 M tetraethylammonia tetrafluoroborate in propylene carbonate electrolyte at a current density of 0.1 A g−1. This work may pave a new way to produce high performance HPCs for energy storage devices.