A facile and general procedure to hyperporous carbons: carbonization of organic zinc salts

A facile, one step procedure is proposed to prepare hyperporous carbons by using zinc organic salts as precursors. The volatile character of zinc at high temperature not only leads to high specific surface area, but also avoids the post-washing step after carbonization. The pore texture of the carbons can be easily turned by using different precursor and the factors that affect the porosity are examined in detail. It is found that a precursor with a high Zn/C ratio and chain-like structure tends to form high specific surface area carbons. The carbons show high potential when used for CO2capture and electrode material of supercapacitor. Especially for Zn–C–C derived from zinc citrate, shows a high specific surface area of 2933 cm3 g−1, a high CO2uptake of 88 cm3 g−1at 298 K and a high capacitance of 260 F g−1at a current density of 1 A g−1. We believe that by choosing proper Zn organic salts precursors, carbonaceous materials with properties that surpass those reported here can be prepared and more application fields are waited to be extended by these carbons.