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.