Molecular level one-step activation of agar to activated carbon for high performance supercapacitors

Activated carbon was synthesized by a simple one-step calcination of deoxygenated agar in a hot KOH aqueous solution, in which KOH plays both deoxidant and activation agent. The deoxygenation course omits high temperature carbonization in the conventional technology and leads to molecular level acti...

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Main Authors: Zhang, Lixing, Gu, Huazhi, Sun, Haibo, Cao, Feifei, Chen, Yao, Chen, George Zheng
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2018
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50414/
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author Zhang, Lixing
Gu, Huazhi
Sun, Haibo
Cao, Feifei
Chen, Yao
Chen, George Zheng
author_facet Zhang, Lixing
Gu, Huazhi
Sun, Haibo
Cao, Feifei
Chen, Yao
Chen, George Zheng
author_sort Zhang, Lixing
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Activated carbon was synthesized by a simple one-step calcination of deoxygenated agar in a hot KOH aqueous solution, in which KOH plays both deoxidant and activation agent. The deoxygenation course omits high temperature carbonization in the conventional technology and leads to molecular level activation of agar in subsequent one-step calcination. The one-step activated carbon has superior specific surface area of 1672 m2 g−1 and total pore volume of 0.81 cm3 g−1. It also shows a maximum specific capacitance of 226 F g−1 in the KOH electrolyte, which is 1.4 times as high as that for the activated carbon by the conventional two-step method. This study provides potentially economical and effective means for the production of commercial activated carbon with high porosity for supercapacitors.
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institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
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publishDate 2018
publisher Elsevier
recordtype eprints
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spelling nottingham-504142020-05-04T19:44:27Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50414/ Molecular level one-step activation of agar to activated carbon for high performance supercapacitors Zhang, Lixing Gu, Huazhi Sun, Haibo Cao, Feifei Chen, Yao Chen, George Zheng Activated carbon was synthesized by a simple one-step calcination of deoxygenated agar in a hot KOH aqueous solution, in which KOH plays both deoxidant and activation agent. The deoxygenation course omits high temperature carbonization in the conventional technology and leads to molecular level activation of agar in subsequent one-step calcination. The one-step activated carbon has superior specific surface area of 1672 m2 g−1 and total pore volume of 0.81 cm3 g−1. It also shows a maximum specific capacitance of 226 F g−1 in the KOH electrolyte, which is 1.4 times as high as that for the activated carbon by the conventional two-step method. This study provides potentially economical and effective means for the production of commercial activated carbon with high porosity for supercapacitors. Elsevier 2018-06-30 Article PeerReviewed Zhang, Lixing, Gu, Huazhi, Sun, Haibo, Cao, Feifei, Chen, Yao and Chen, George Zheng (2018) Molecular level one-step activation of agar to activated carbon for high performance supercapacitors. Carbon, 132 . pp. 573-579. ISSN 0008-6223 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622318302367?via%3Dihub doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2018.02.100 doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2018.02.100
spellingShingle Zhang, Lixing
Gu, Huazhi
Sun, Haibo
Cao, Feifei
Chen, Yao
Chen, George Zheng
Molecular level one-step activation of agar to activated carbon for high performance supercapacitors
title Molecular level one-step activation of agar to activated carbon for high performance supercapacitors
title_full Molecular level one-step activation of agar to activated carbon for high performance supercapacitors
title_fullStr Molecular level one-step activation of agar to activated carbon for high performance supercapacitors
title_full_unstemmed Molecular level one-step activation of agar to activated carbon for high performance supercapacitors
title_short Molecular level one-step activation of agar to activated carbon for high performance supercapacitors
title_sort molecular level one-step activation of agar to activated carbon for high performance supercapacitors
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50414/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50414/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50414/