The simple preparation of a hierarchical porous carbon with high surface area for high performance supercapacitors

A simple method was proposed to prepare a high surface area and hierarchical porous carbon for supercapacitors by one step carbonization-activation of poly(vinylidene chloride) with NaOH. The porous carbon has hierarchical micropores, mesopores and macropores with a high surface area of 2 815 m2·g−1. Its capacitance reaches 376 and 215 F·g−1 at current densities of 0.05 and 50 A·g−1 respectively in 6 mol·L−1 KOH aqueous electrolyte. The capacitance is 170 and 124 F·g−1 at 0.05 and 20 A·g−1, respectively in 1 mol·L−1 Et4NBF4/AN non-aqueous electrolyte. The high capacitance and its high retention ratios at high current density in both electrolytes could be ascribed to its hierarchically porous structure and high surface area.