A facile Zn involved self-sacrificing template-assisted strategy towards porous carbon frameworks for aqueous supercapacitors with high ions diffusion coefficient

Abstract Controllable synthesis of various nanostructured carbons with different textural parameters to achieve excellent electrochemical performance has attracted tremendous attention in recent years. Herein, a facile one-step Zn involved self-sacrificing template combined with KOH activation strategy has been developed for the producing porous carbon frameworks (PCFs) from sustainable biomass. The resulting PCFs display an interconnected 3D structure with large specific surface area and abundant mesoporous, which is beneficial to capacitive energy storage. Specifically, PCF-1 prepared with 1 g of Zn power presents a large specific capacitance of 285 F/g at 1 A/g and still remain a large value of 220 F/g at 50 A/g in 6 M KOH aqueous electrolyte. Moreover, it also displays an outstanding capacitive performance in 1 M Li2SO4 electrolyte within 0–1.6 V. The basic principle behind this good performance are closely associated with the interconnected 3D structure architecture and abundant mesoporous resulting from Zn involved self-sacrificing template and KOH activation, which is in favour of rapid ionic mass transport. Concerning the facile and efficient process, this Zn involved self-sacrificing template combined with KOH activation strategy is a promising strategy towards functional carbons for electrochemical capacitive storage.