Porous carbon nanospheres with moderately oriented domains for EDLC electrode

Abstract

Porous carbon nanospheres with moderately oriented microcrystalline structures were prepared via a relatively simple synthetic route in this article. CTAB acted as a structure‐directing agent to induce small sulfonated pitch (SP) pieces to assemble orderly. By this means, the formation of carbon nanospheres was simultaneous with the moderate orientation of carbon microcrystalline without additional process. Owing to the moderately oriented microcrystalline structures, the resultant sample CNS3 possessed a high e‐conductivity of 62.5 S/m. When used as an electrode material for EDLCs, it showed excellent electrochemical properties even without any conductive agent. In an organic electrolyte, the resultant sample CNS3 possessed a high specific capacitance of 155 F/g at 20 A/g and outstanding cycle life with 94.2% capacity retention after 10,000 cycles. This work puts forward a novel design for carbon nanospheres with moderately oriented domains by a simple and energy‐efficient means.