Abstract
Because of their excellent stability and highly specific surface area, carbon based materials have received attention as electrode materials of electrical double-layer capacitors(EDLCs). Biomass based carbon materials have been studied for electrode materials of EDLCs; these materials have low capacitance and high-rate performance. We fabricated tofu based porous activated carbon by polymer dissolution reaction and KOH activation. The activated porous carbon(APC-15), which has an optimum condition of 15 wt%, has a high specific surface area($1,296.1m^2\;g^{-1}$), an increased average pore diameter(2.3194 nm), and a high mesopore distribution(32.4 %), as well as increased surface functional groups. In addition, APC has a high specific capacitance($195F\;g^{-1}$) at low current density of $0.1A\;g^{-1}$ and excellent specific capacitance($164F\;g^{-1}$) at high current density of $2.0A\;g^{-1}$. Due to the increased specific surface area, volume ratio of mesopores, and surface functional groups, the specific capacitance and high-rate performance increased. Consequently, the tofu based activated porous carbon can be proposed as an electrode material for high-performance EDLCs.
