One-step synthesis of biomass-derived porous carbon foam for high performance supercapacitors

•We report a facile one-step carbonization and activation of biomass to prepare porous carbon foam.•Carbon foam displays a specific surface area and cross-linked foam structure.•High specific capacitance, good rate performance and cycle stability are obtained.

We report a facile, cost-effective and one-step carbonization and activation of cattail biomass to prepare porous carbon foam. Due to its high specific surface area (1951 m2 g−1) and cross-linked foam structure, carbon foam material demonstrates is a promising electrode material for supercapacitor with high specific capacitance of 336 F g−1, good rate performance and cycle stability.