High specific surface area carbon aerogel derived from starch for methylene blue adsorption and supercapacitors

Starch based carbon aerogel has attracted significant attention due to the wide source, environmental friendliness and low price of raw materials. Here, starch based carbon aerogel was fabricated by graft reaction and crosslinking reaction of starch. The network structure of starch hydrogel was optimized through graft and crosslinking reaction. After freeze drying and high temperature carbonization, the obtained carbon aerogel that carbonized at 800 degrees C showed a specific surface area of 1508 m2 center dot g-1 without activation which is far higher than that of other unactivated carbon aerogels. The starch based carbon aerogel carbonized at 800 degrees C exhibited superior methylene blue adsorption ability with a maximum adsorption capacity of 963.5 mg center dot g-1 as a result of its rich surface functional groups, high specific surface area, and reasonable pore size distribution. Furthermore, the carbon aerogel carbonized at 700 degrees C exhibited excellent electrochemical performance with a specific capacitance of 180.1 F center dot g- 1 at a current density of 1 A center dot g-1as electrode materials for supercapacitors. Overall, this work provides a new method to prepare high performance starch based carbon aerogel.