Synthesis of nanostructured carbon by chlorination of calcium carbide at moderate temperatures and its performance evaluation

A new type of one-step preparation technique for the calcium carbide-derived carbon (CaC2-CDC) was developed. In this study, CaC2-CDC was synthesized from CaC2 in a freshly prepared chlorine environment in the temperature range of 100–600 °C. The structure and morphology of as-prepared CaC2-CDC were studied by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and nitrogen sorption experiment. Analysis of X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy showed that CaC2-CDC is an amorphous nanoporous material, and the structure depended on the synthesis temperature. The resultant carbon demonstrated narrow pore size distribution (PSD) and specific surface area (SSA) close to 800 m2 g−1 (for nitrogen sorption) at a synthesized temperature of 100 °C. Increasing the reaction temperature above 400 °C resulted in a lower SSA of CaC2-CDC due to the beginning of graphitization tendency. The nanoporous structure and narrow PSD of CaC2-CDC indicated potential application as electrode materials in supercapacitor. The CaC2-CDC exhibited a specific capacitance of 127.7 F g−1 measured from the three-electrode cyclic voltammetry experiment at 10 mV s−1.