Capacitive Behavior of Glucose-Derived Porous Activated Carbon with Different Morphologies

Glucose-derived porous activated carbon materials (AGC-600-4 and AGC-180-x) are prepared using ZnCl2 as the etching agent via impregnation treatment and hydrothermal method followed by the calcination process. The analytic results indicate that the obtained materials exhibit higher specific surface area and superior double-layer capacitive behavior than the corresponding pristine carbon (GC-600 and GC-180) when used as electrode materials for supercapacitors. Moreover, compared with the AGC-600-4 nano-sheets, the optimal AGC-180-4 microspheres have a high specific surface area of 1713 m(2) g(-1) and a maximum specific capacitance of 235.9 F g(-1) at a current density of 1.0 A g(-1) in the three-electrode system. Meanwhile, AGC-180-4 also exhibits better capacitive properties than AGC-600-4 in the two-electrode system, showing an excellent cyclic stability with a high energy density of 24.63 Wh kg(-1) at the power density of 949.5 W kg(-1). It is thus demonstrated that AGC-180-4 could be ideal electrode materials for supercapacitor due to its unique etched spherical structure and excellent electrochemical properties. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.