On the mechanism of microporous carbon supercapacitors

Microporous carbon shows the highest supercapacitor performance among other carbon nanomaterials, and thus, is considered as the most promising candidate for the fabrication of high-performance supercapacitors. However, it has puzzled the researchers as micropores do not have enough space for the formation of the so-called double layer. Several models have been proposed to explain the mechanism of energy storage by microporous supercapacitors. The most common one is that the micropores are initially filled by both anions and cations, and charging/discharging is via ion-exchange through these single row-filled micropores. Although this theory has been supported by several computational calculations, it is discussed here that this model is in disagreement with the experimental facts commonly accepted in the literature. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.