Fabrication of conductive carbonaceous spherical architecture from pitch by spray drying

Continuous spray drying used to synthesize amphiphilic sulfonated pitch-based spherical nanoparticles was reported in this study. The spherical particles were further carbonized and activated by KOH to obtain porous spheres. N-2 adsorption-desorption, mercury porosimetry and Raman spectroscopy were used to investigate the pore structure and electron conductivity of the resulting spherical activated carbon particles. The results show that the porous spheres had a high specific surface area (e g. up to 2550 m(2) g(-1)) and a continuous pore size distribution that varied from micropores to macropores. This interconnected 3-D carbonaceous architecture efficiently improved the electrical conductivity and facilitated a better utilization of the inner pores for energy storage. These two aspects combine together to guarantee a low internal resistance and a good rate performance to an EDLC using these spherical nanoporous carbons as the electrodes. In 1 M TEA-BF4/PC solution, such EDLC showed a specific capacitance of 173 F g(-1) at 0.05 A g(-1) and 115 F g(-1) at 10 A g(-1). Its energy density gets to 43.8 W h kg(-1) and maintains at 24,16 W h kg(-1) even the power density rises up to 25 kW kg(-1). (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.