Highly activated porous carbon with 3D microspherical structure and hierarchical pores as greatly enhanced cathode material for high-performance supercapacitors

Highly activated porous carbon with attractive and promising electrochemical properties is employed as cathode material for high performance supercapacitors. The present paper proposes a novel activated porous carbon which is derived from zinc-based metal organic framworks as a source and template by carbonization at 825 °C and also further activation with KOH. The obtained activated porous carbon has uniform unique spherical morphology with an average size of 3–5 μm and has a specific surface area up to 2314.9 m2g-1. The activated porous carbon with superior mesoporous structure exhibits a high electrochemical performance and an excellent electrochemical stability in 6 M KOH solution. It provides a high specific capacitance and power density of 325 F g−1 and 71.2 W kg−1, respectively, at a current density of 1 A g−1. Additionally, the activated porous carbon retains its specific capacitance with very slight decay rate of 1.21% after 150,000 cycles at an ultrahigh current density of 50 A g−1. Hence, the present investigation demonstrates that the as-prepared activated porous carbon is a promising candidate as a low-cost and highly efficient electrode material for high-performance supercapacitors.