Mesoporous carbon material as cathode for high performance lithium-ion capacitor

Mesoporous carbon (MC) material with high specific surface area (1432 m2/g), large pore volume (2.894 cm3/g) and appropriate mesopore structure (about 6.5 nm) has been prepared. We use the magnesium citrate as the precursor of the carbon material and the nano-sized magnesium oxide (MgO) particles as template provided by magnesium citrate. The structure characterization and the electrochemical performance of MC are investigated. Compared with commercial activated carbon (AC) cathode, the utilization of MC cathode can obviously improve the energy density of LIC device. When the MC cathode is coupled with pre-lithiated hard carbon (HC) anode, the LIC device shows the optimal electrochemical performance, high energy density up to 95.4 Wh/kg and power density as high as 7.4 kW/kg (based on active material mass of two electrodes), excellent capacity retention of 97.3% after 2000 cycles. The present work indicates the combination of MC electrode with HC electrodes as promising candidates for the realization of LIC with high energy density, high power density and long cycle life.