Frame-filling structural nanoporous carbon from amphiphilic carbonaceous mixture comprising graphite oxide

Among all of the requirements for carbon materials used in electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs), specific surface area (SSA) and electrical conductivity is a pair of mutual competing demands. In this paper, a series of frame-filling structural nanoporous carbons were prepared using an amphiphilic mixture of graphite oxide and a coal tar pitch-based carbonaceous material as precursor ensuring a high carbon yield. In the final porous composites, the few-layer graphene microsheets derived from graphite oxide contribute to the conductive frame construction by randomly cross-stacking during exfoliation and thermal reduction, while nanoparticles derived from coal tar pitch-based carbonaceous material fill into the frame and chemically bind on the surface of graphene microsheets of about 2 nm in thickness. The SSA is up to 2441 m2 g−1 and the electrical conductivity is 179 S/m. It has energy storage superiorities over an ordinary nanoporous carbon, rendering a shortened relaxation time constant (5.34 s), improved gravimetric capacitance (115.4 F/g) as well as cyclic stability in 10,000 cycles with 87.8% capacity retention in 1 M TEABF4/PC electrolyte. The frame-filling structural nanoporous carbon shows great potential for blocks or high-capacity energy storage system by complex serial-parallel.