Influence of mesophase activation conditions on the specific capacitance of the resulting carbons

Mesophase pitch AR24 was directly activated with KOH using different proportions of the activating agent and activation temperatures, to study the effect on the textural characteristics of the resultant activated carbons and how these characteristics influence their behaviour as electrodes in supercapacitors. The textural properties of the activated carbons were studied by gas adsorption and immersion calorimetry. The results indicate that all the carbons produced were mainly microporous, with pore size around 1 nm. The behaviour of these carbons as electrodes in supercapacitors was studied from galvanostatic charge–discharge cycles. The specific capacitance values obtained were very high, reaching 400 and 200 F g−1 at low and high current densities respectively, for the sample activated with (5:1) KOH to mesophase ratio. Nevertheless, the reasons for this high capacitance values cannot be explained only on the basis of the textural characteristics of the activated carbons, as the results indicated that other factors might be also playing a significant role in their electrochemical behaviour.