Surface-driven charge storage behaviors of Kenaf-derived carbon electrodes with hierarchical porous structure for lithium-ion capacitors

Porous activated carbon as cathode of Li-ion capacitor was prepared through a twostep fabrication process using kenaf as biomass carbon precursor possible easily scaled-up for industrial production. The biomass-derived porous carbon shows an extremely high specific surface area of 2,719 m2 g−1 and relatively applicable pore volume of 1.6 m3 g−1 as well as well-developed carbon structure. As a result, it exhibits excellent capacitive performances with specific capacity of ~195 mA h g−1 at a current density of 0.1 A g−1, good rate capability at current rates ranging from 0.1 to 4 A g−1, and outstanding cycling stability in organic electrolyte. [Display omitted] •Porous activated carbons were prepared through a two-step process using biomass carbon precursor.•The kAC-6 displays an extremely high specific surface area of 2,719 m2 g−1 and pore volume of 1.6 m3 g−1 with well-developed carbon structure.•The kAC-6 exhibits excellent capacitive performances as cathode of Li-ion capacitor with specific capacity of ~ 195 mA h g−1 at a current density of 0.1 A g−1, good rate capability at current rates ranging from 0.1 to 4 A g−1, and outstanding cycling stability. On this work, we prepared the porous activated carbon as cathode of lithium-ion capacitor through two-step fabrication process using kenaf as biomass carbon precursor possible easily scaled-up for industrial production. The biomass-derived porous carbon shows an extremely high specific surface area of 2,719 m2 g−1 and relatively applicable pore volume of 1.6 m3 g−1 as well as well-developed carbon structure. As a result, it exhibits excellent lithium-ion capacitive performances with specific capacity of ~195 mA h g−1 at a current rate of 0.1 A g−1, good rate capability at current rates ranging from 0.1 to 4 A g−1, and outstanding cycling stability in organic electrolyte. These results suggest that the optimization of pore and carbon microstructure of biomass-derived carbon is contributed to outstanding electrochemical performance for improving the energy density of lithium-ion capacitor.