Preparation of lignite-based activated carbon with high specific capacitance for electrochemical capacitors

A lignite-based activated carbon (LAC) for electrochemical capacitors (ECs) was prepared from high moisture lignite by KOH activation, and the as-prepared sample was characterized by the N 2 -sorption, scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. The electrochemical performances of ECs with activated carbon as electrodes in 3 M KOH aqueous solution were evaluated by constant current charge-discharge and cyclic voltammetry. The LAC exhibits a well-developed surface area of 2581 m 2 /g, a relative wide pore size distribution of 0.5–10 nm. The ECs with LAC as electrode materials presents a high specific capacitance of 392 F/g at a low current density of 50 mA/g, and still remains 315 F/g even at a high current density of 5 A/g. The residual specific capacitance is as high as 92.9% after 2000 cycles. Compared with the commercial activated carbon (Maxsorb: Commercial product, Kansai, Japan), the LAC based electrode materials shows superior capacitive performance in terms of specific capacitance and charge–discharge performance at the high current density.