Synthesis and supercapacitive performance of three-dimensional cubic-ordered mesoporous carbons

• The 3D OMCs are prepared by nanocasting pathway and carbonized subsequently at different temperatures.
• The synthesized technology is a crucial factor impacting the structure and characteristics of OMCs.
• The OMC-600 exhibits ordered honeycomb-like structure, which is an inverse replica of KIT-6 template.

3D cubic-ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) are prepared by nanocasting approach using silica KIT-6 as the template, furfuryl alcohol as the carbon precursor and subsequently carbonized at the temperature of 500 °C, 600 °C and 700 °C. The physicochemical and electrochemical properties of the as-prepared OMCs are investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherm, Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cycle life measurement in 6 mol L−1 KOH electrolyte. The results demonstrate that the synthesized technology is a crucial factor impacting the characteristics of OMCs. With the change of carbonization temperature, the OMC-600 exhibits the honeycomb-like morphology with high specific surface area (1257.8 m2 g−1), large pore volume (1.56 cm3 g−1), and high capacitance of 221.8 F g−1 at the current density of 1 A g−1. In addition, the supercapacitor using OMC-600 as the active material shows high specific capacitance and excellent cycle stability, which exhibits a specific capacitance of 52.8 F g−1 at the charge/discharge current density of 0.5 A g−1. Moreover, the OMC-600 supercapacitor delivers high energy density of 6.53 Wh kg−1 at the power density of 5000 W kg−1, indicating a promising application for the high performance supercapacitors.