Phenolic resin-templating synthesis of coal pitch-based porous carbon electrodes for high-performance double-layer supercapacitors

Developing facile synthesis methods for porous carbon and tuning its pores are crucial for high-performance supercapacitors. Herein, a soft-template synthesis method for porous carbon is reported using thermosetting phenolic resin as template. The ratio of coal pitch to phenolic resin plays a vital role in tuning the distribution of micro/mesopores in the derived porous carbon. The obtained porous carbon (SHC3) exhibits a high specific surface area of 2424 m2 g-1 compared to pure coal pitch-based sample (2186 m2 g-1). As supercapacitor electrode, the SHC3 exhibits excellent double-layer capacitance properties, delivering a high specific capacitance of 324.6 F g- 1@1 A g-1. Significantly, the specific capacitance remains 256.3 F g- 1 even at 10 A g-1. The SHC3//SHC3 symmetric supercapacitor displays an excellent cycling stability of 96.6 % capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles at 5 A g-1. This work provides a straightforward approach to preparing porous carbon materials for supercapacitors using low-value carbon resources.