Abstract
We synthesized mesoporous carbon from pre-cross-linked lignin gel impregnated with a surfactant as the pore-forming agent, and then activated the carbon through physical and chemical methods to obtain activated mesoporous carbon. The activated mesoporous carbons exhibited 1.5- to 6-fold increases in porosity with a maximum BET specific surface area of 1148 m2/g and a pore volume of 1.0 cm3/g. Slow physical activation helped retain dominant mesoporosity; however, aggressive chemical activation caused some loss of the mesopore volume fraction. Plots of cyclic voltammetric data with the capacitor electrode made from these carbons showed an almost rectangular curve depicting the behavior of ideal double-layer capacitance. Although the pristine mesoporous carbon exhibited the same range of surface-area-based capacitance as that of other known carbon-based supercapacitors, activation decreased the surface-area-based specific capacitance and increased the gravimetric-specific capacitance of the mesoporous carbons. Surface activation lowered bulk density and electrical conductivity. Warburg impedance as a vertical tail in the lower frequency domain of Nyquist plots supported good supercapacitor behavior for the activated mesoporous carbons. Our work demonstrated that biomass-derived mesoporous carbon materials continue to show potential for use in specific electrochemical applications.
