Facile synthesis of high-surface area mesoporous biochar for energy storage via in-situ template strategy

Abstract A novel synthetic strategy was successfully developed to fabricate mesoporous biochar with high-surface area from crab shell as carbon precursor and its natural CaCO 3 as in-situ template. The influences of pyrolysis temperature on the pore structure were investigated via N 2 adsorption-desorption isotherms and scanning/transmission electron microscope. The as-prepared biochar at pyrolysis temperature of 900 °C possessed high surface area of 634 m 2 /g and large mesopore percentage of 70.80%. The maximum specific capacitance of biochar electrode reached 220 F/g. The excellent supercapacitor performance of this supercapacitor was strongly attributed to the thermal decomposition of CaCO 3 , producing high surface area and mesoporous structure for raw biochar.