Impact of Disorder, Porosity, and Surface Chemistry of Salt Templated Carbons on Capacitance.

The necessity of tailoring the structure/texture of carbons to improve the performance of aqueous-based electrical double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) is emphasized. A green soft-salt templating approach allowed the preparation of a series of porous carbons for this target. The EDLCs operating in 1M LiSO demonstrated a maximum capacitance of 244 F g at 1.6 V (CsCl/KCl-T), long-term cycle life (288 h for LiCl/KCl-T), and a specific energy exceeding 10 Wh kg. The physicochemical properties of carbons have been correlated with capacitance, retention, and stability. The investigation by Raman spectroscopy revealed that carbons with the increased disorder, thus, higher I/I ratio, are in accord with enhanced capacitance. Active surface area (ASA) values, related to carbon defects, perfectly supported the Raman findings. Surface functionality, i.e., the phenol/ether and carboxyl groups are found to affect capacitance. The carbons showed a predominance of micropores, with a specific surface area (SSA) ranging from 2640 to 1453 m g. In sum, I/I, SSA, ASA, and volume of micropores are in linear proportion with capacitance at various regimes. However, the most ordered and less porous materials provided better lifespan performance. Therefore, a good compromise is required to satisfy both high capacitance and the long cycle life of EDLCs.