Popcorn-Derived Porous Carbon Flakes with an Ultrahigh Specific Surface Area for Superior Performance Supercapacitors

Abstract

Popcorn-derived porous carbon flakes have been successfully fabricated from the biomass of maize. Utilizing the "puffing effect", the nubby maize grain turned into materials with an interconnected honeycomb-like porous structure composed of carbon flakes. The following chemical activation method enabled the as-prepared products to possess optimized porous structures for electrochemical energy-storage devices, such as multilayer flake-like structures, ultrahigh specific surface area (S_BET: 3301 m² g^-1), and a high content of micropores (microporous surface area of 95%, especially the optimized sub-nanopores with the size of 0.69 nm) that can increase the specific capacitance. The as-obtained sample displayed excellent specific capacitance of 286 F g^-1 at 90 A g^-1 for supercapacitors. Moreover, the unique porous structure demonstrated an ideal way to improve the volumetric energy density performance. A high energy density of 103 Wh kg^-1 or 53 Wh L^-1 has been obtained in the case of ionic liquid electrolyte, which is the highest among reported biomass-derived carbon materials and will satisfy the urgent requirements of a primary power source for electric vehicles. This work may prove to be a fast, green, and large-scale synthesis route by using the large nubby granular materials to synthesize applicable porous carbons in energy-storage devices.

Keywords: carbon materials; flake-like; microwave; sub-nanopores; supercapacitors.