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A long/short-range interconnected carbon with well-defined mesopore for high-energy-density supercapacitors

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Abstract

Amorphous carbon derived from biomass unusually combines the merits of large specific surface area and abundant micropores, offering massive anchoring points for ion adsorption in electrolyte. Nevertheless, the short-range ordered structure in amorphous carbon hinders the fast electron transfer. Conversely, graphitic carbon with long-range ordered structure is beneficial for electron transfer. Thus, a low-cost strategy is required to marry hierarchical porous structure with long-range ordered structure, resulting in a long/short-range interconnected porous carbon and then leading to fast ion and electron transfer. Herein, we modified the solid-phase conversion process of biomass by employing the features of liquid-phase carbonization for petroleum asphalt. With the assistance of asphalt, the large specific surface area (>2,000 m2·g−1), high ratio of mesopores (ca. 60%) together with long-range ordered structure are in-situ created in as-made porous carbon. Thanks to the well configured structure in small scale, the as-made co-converted carbon can be operated in high-viscosity EMIMBF4 electrolyte with a superior capacitance (315 F·g−1@1 A·g−1). Besides, the as-assembled symmetric supercapacitor can deliver a super-high specific energy of 174 Wh·kg−1@2.0 kW·kg−1. This work provides a new version for designing highly porous biomass-derived carbon with long/short-range alternating structure at molecular level.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51872035 and 22078052), the Talent Program of Rejuvenation of Liaoning (No. XLYC1807002), and the Innovation Program of Dalian City (No. 2019RJ03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Lab of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Liaoning Key Lab for Energy Materials and Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Yuanyang Xie, Chang Yu, Wei Guo, Lin Ni, Zhao Wang, Jinhe Yu, Le Yang, Rong Fu, Kunlun Liu & Jieshan Qiu

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  1. Yuanyang Xie
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  2. Chang Yu
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  3. Wei Guo
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  4. Lin Ni
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  5. Zhao Wang
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  6. Jinhe Yu
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  7. Le Yang
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  9. Kunlun Liu
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Correspondence to Chang Yu or Jieshan Qiu.

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Xie, Y., Yu, C., Guo, W. et al. A long/short-range interconnected carbon with well-defined mesopore for high-energy-density supercapacitors. Nano Res. 15, 1399–1408 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3676-5

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