Hierarchical porous carbon materials derived from petroleum pitch for high-performance supercapacitors

In this work, a honeycomb-like carbon material derived from petroleum pitch was synthesized by a simple one-step carbonization/activation method using silica nanospheres as the hard templates. The obtained hierarchical porous carbon materials (HPCs) with a large specific surface area and uniform macropore distribution provide abundant active sites and sufficient ion migration channels. When used as an electrode material for supercapacitors, the HPCs exhibit a high specific capacitance of 341.0 F g(-1) at 1 A g(-1), excellent rate capability with a capacitance retention of 55.6% at 50 A g(-1) (189.5 F g(-1)), and outstanding cycling performance in the three-electrode system. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.