Tailoring texture properties in porous carbon for enhanced capacitive performance: towards investigating the CO2 activation behaviors of carbonaceous matter

Regulating texture properties in porous carbon for enhanced capacitive performance and understanding modification processes have been strongly desired. Herein, ordinal H 3 PO 4 -CO 2 activation, as well as thermal behavior measurements, were applied for obtaining pine sawdust-derived porous carbons (PC-T, T can be 800, 850, 900, 950, and 1000) for boosting specific capacitance and understanding the CO 2 activation behaviors of the porous carbon fabricated by H 3 PO 4 activation (PC), respectively. The micropore surface area, microporosity, micropore volume (V micro ), and specific capacitance of PC-T were all significantly higher than those of PC. For PC, it is optimal to perform CO 2 activation above 800 °C, whereby the activation procedure represents a controlled chemical reaction procedure. Alternatively, the specific surface area exhibited a positively linear relationship over the reactivity index. Remarkably, the sample PC-1000 delivered an excellent specific capacitance up to 228.47 F/g upon 0.5 A/ for such a 3-electrode configuration owing to the high specific surface area (1880.64 m 2 /g) and considerable micro/meso/macropores. Overall, excellent manufacturability and modifiable texture properties afford sequential H 3 PO 4 -CO 2 activation enabling the manufacture of a range of high-level and multilevel porous carbons. • Sequential H 3 PO 4 -CO 2 activation can target regulate texture properties. • The CO 2 activation of PC was a chemical reaction control process. • The specific surface area exhibited a linearly positive correlation with the reactivity index. • A high specific capacitance of 230.78 F/g was achieved at 0.5 A/g.