Mesoporous carbon cubes derived from fullerene crystals as a high rate performance electrode material for supercapacitors

Abstract

We report the thermal conversion of three-dimensional (3D) mesoporous crystalline fullerene C₇₀ cubes (MCFC) into mesoporous carbon with retention of the original cubic morphology. This newly synthesized cube morphology mesoporous carbon shows excellent electrochemical capacitive properties. Cyclic voltammetry and chronopotentiometry (charge–discharge) measurements reveal that this nanostructured carbon material exhibits very high specific capacitance ca. 286 F g⁻¹ at a scan rate of 5 mV s⁻¹ and 205 F g⁻¹ at a current density of 1 A g⁻¹. Furthermore, it exhibits high rate performance and excellent cyclic stability, no loss of specific capacitance is observed after 10 000 cycles. We believe that this novel mesoporous cubic carbon can be used as an excellent electrode material for advanced electrochemical supercapacitors.