Mesoporous graphitic carbon microtubes derived from fullerene C70 tubes as a high performance electrode material for advanced supercapacitors

Abstract

Direct conversion of mesoporous crystalline fullerene C₇₀ microtubes into mesoporous graphitic carbon microtubes by heat treatment at high temperature (2000 °C) with retention of the initial one-dimensional tubular morphology is reported. The walls of the resulting graphitic carbon microtubes are composed of ordered conjugated sp² carbon with a robust mesoporous framework structure. Cyclic voltammetry and chronopotentiometry (charge–discharge) measurements revealed that this new carbon material exhibits high specific capacitance ca. 212.2 F g⁻¹ at a scan rate of 5 mV s⁻¹ and 184.6 F g⁻¹ at current density 0.5 A g⁻¹. Furthermore, the material showed high rate performance. These results demonstrate that mesoporous graphitic carbon microtubes derived from the π-electron carbon source fullerene C₇₀ can be a promising electrode material for application in high performance electrochemical supercapacitors.