On the cycling stability of lithium-ion capacitors containing soft carbon as anodic material

•Soft carbons can be successfully used for the realization of high performance LICs.•LIC containing soft carbon display high power and energy.•LIC containing display stable performance for 50,000 cycles.

Petroleum coke (PeC), a soft carbon, displays excellent performance at high current densities so that it can be considered as a very promising material for high performance lithium-ion capacitors (LICs). PeC-based LICs deliver a specific energy and power of 48 Wh kg−1 and 9 kW kg−1, respectively, upon charge–discharge tests carried out using a current density of 4.5 A g−1 (corresponding to 30 C). These values are outperforming those displayed by supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries under the same condition, and such performance can be maintained for 50,000 cycles.