High surface area porous carbons prepared from hydrochars by phosphoric acid activation

In the present work, a new route for preparation of high-performance porous carbons under mild conditions was reported. The high surface area (2700 m 2/g) and large pore volume (1.98 cm 3/g) porous carbons were prepared from hydrochars by conventional phosphoric acid activation method. The hydrochars described here can be obtained from sulfuric acid hydrolysis of rice husk via dehydration, polymerization and carbonization. A specific capacitance of 130 F g −1 was achieved by using the porous carbon, indicating that the porous carbon prepared by this route has good electrochemical performance. Furthermore, the localized graphitic nature of the porous carbon was proved by X-ray diffraction pattern.