A general conversion of polyacrylate–metal complexes into porous carbons especially evinced in the case of magnesium polyacrylate

Abstract

As a generalized synthetic protocol, porous carbons have been for the first time prepared by a direct carbonization of polyacrylate–metal complexes. The case of magnesium polyacrylate was emphatically studied. It reveals that the carbonization temperature can play a crucial role in the determination of surface areas, pore structures, surface functionalities of porous carbons as well as the correlative capacitive performances. The carbon-Mg-900 sample exhibits a high surface area of 942 m² g⁻¹ and a large total pore volume of 1.90 cm³ g⁻¹, with a high specific capacitance of 262.4 F g⁻¹ at 0.5 A g⁻¹ in 6.0 mol L⁻¹ aqueous KOH electrolyte. Moreover, it displays high capacitance retention even of 33.5% at 100 A g⁻¹, and long-term cycling ability (∼91.3% retention after 5000 cycles). More importantly, the present synthetic strategy can be extended to prepare other polyacrylate–metal complexes, such as calcium polyacrylate and aluminum polyacrylate. The carbon-Al-900 sample can exhibit a high surface area of 1556 m² g⁻¹ and a large total pore volume of 0.97 cm³ g⁻¹. To sum up, the carbon samples derived from magnesium polyacrylate possess the highest capacitive performances as supercapacitor electrode materials.