Mesoporous Carbon Spheres: Synthesis, Characterization and Supercapacitance

A green and efficient hydrothermal technique without any catalysts is used to prepare monodispersed carbon spheres from glucose for the potential supercapacitor application. As-prepared spherical carbon materials have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption, Fourier transition infrared spectroscopy and electrochemical techniques. After the activation treatment by molten KOH, mesoporous carbon spheres with ~2.2 nm mesopores, abundant hydrophilic functional groups and high specific surface area (1670 m2 g-1) have been obtained. Electrochemical characterization indicates a high specific capacitance (253 F g-1) for such material. Further improvement in capacitance (302 F g-1) is surprisingly found by introducing 10 wt% Pt onto mesoporous carbon spheres and a possible mechanism is proposed.