Highly porous carbon material from polycyclodextrin for high-performance supercapacitor electrode

Using low-cost biomass to develop ultra-high specific surface area carbon electrode materials for supercapacitors is very important, but it is still challenging. In this paper, using the “bottom-up” idea and starting from the hydrolysate of starch, highly porous carbon material is fabricated by simple polymerization of β-cyclodextrin (CD) and chemical activation. The obtained material shows a maximum specific surface area (SSA) up to 3710 m2 g−1 and pore volume of 2.03 cm3 g−1. Thanks to the hierarchical porous structure and ultra-high specific surface area, the carbon based supercapacitors demonstrates high capacitance of 416 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 and excellent cycling stability of 100 % capacity retention after 10,000 cycles in 6.0 M KOH electrolyte system. Furthermore, an attractive energy density of 23.4 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 224.9 W kg−1 in 1.8 V Na2SO4 electrolyte system can be delivered. The polycyclic dextrin based porous carbon reported in this paper has better electrochemical performance than most carbon based electrode materials reported today, which provides a feasible synthetic method for the synthesis of excellent supercapacitor electrode materials. •Cyclodextrin, a green biomass derivative, is used as raw material to expand the application channels of cyclodextrin.•Porous carbon materials were prepared by carbonization after cyclodextrin crosslinking polymerization.•The sample shows unique structure and excellent electrochemical performance as electrode material of supercapacitors.•The application of the "bottom-up" idea provides the possibility for the structural regulation of carbon materials.