Facile synthesis of carbon with nanopore-network precisely controlled by zinc ions at the molecular level for Boosting the performance of supercapacitors

Abstract Three-dimensional hierarchically nanoporous carbons, drived from the ion-exchange resin of D113-type, are precisely synthesized by zinc ions uniform injection in molecular level. And a facile metal-gasification carbonization approach was performed for the preparation of the carbon material with a high surface area value of 2178.0 m2 g−1 and large pore volume of 1.445 cm3 g−1. Especially, this novel carbon electrode materials show high degree of graphitization and hierarchically porous structure, and largely boost the performance of ionic liquid supercapacitors, with an outstanding specific energy of 180.2 Wh kg−1, based on total mass of electroactive materials. Moreover, the Zn-promoted hierarchically nanoporous carbons (ZNCs)-based supercapacitors also possess an excellent cycling stability with 92.1% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles with a high limited charge voltage of 4.0 V in neat 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMIMBF4) electrolyte at 298 K.