Pore structure control of mesoporous carbon as supercapacitor material

Abstract The pore structure and electrochemical performances of mesoporous carbons prepared by silica sol template method as electrode material for supercapacitor were investigated in this work. The pore size distribution of the mesoporous carbons changes from unimodal to bimodal and the mean pore size increases with the increase of silica sol/glucose ratio. The specific capacitance of the mesoporous carbons also increases with the increase of silica sol/glucose ratio. A novel technique named as template–chemical activation method, combining both template and chemical activation methods, is proposed, which can effectively control the pore structure, improving the electrochemical properties of the mesoporous carbon with improved porosity especially microporosity.