Performance of templated mesoporous carbons in supercapacitors

By analogy with other types of carbons, templated mesoporous carbons (TMCs) can be used as supercapacitors. Their contribution arises essentially from the double layer capacity formed on their surface, which corresponds to 0.14 F m−2 in aqueous electrolytes such as H2SO4 and KOH and 0.06 F m−2 for the aprotic medium (C2H5)4NBF4 in CH3CN. In the case of a series of 27 TMCs, it appears that the effective surface area determined by independent techniques can be as high as 1500–1600 m2 g−1, and therefore exceeds the value obtained for many activated carbons (typically 900–1300 m2 g−1). On the other hand, the relatively low amount of surface oxygen in the present TMCs, as opposed to activated carbons, reduces the contribution of pseudo-capacitance effects and limits the gravimetric capacitance to 200–220 F g−1 for aqueous electrolytes. In the case of non-aqueous electrolyte, it rarely exceeds 100 F g−1.It is also shown that the average mesopore diameter of these TMCs does not improve significantly the ionic mobility compared with typical activated carbons of pore-widths above 1.0–1.3 nm.This study suggests that activated carbons remain the more promising candidates for supercapacitors with high performances.