Li-ion vs. Na-ion capacitors: A performance evaluation with coconut shell derived mesoporous carbon and natural plant based hard carbon

Coconut shell derived mesoporous carbon (CS-AC) is explored as prospective supercapacitor component in Li-ion and Na-ion capacitors (LIC and NIC) along with pre-lithiated/sodiated natural plant derived hard carbon (HC) as battery element. Though, there is no obvious variation from the capacitive properties of CS-AC, but an obvious difference is evident for battery component in single electrode configuration. Based on such performance, the mass loading has been adjusted during the fabrication of LIC and NIC. Prior to this, HC is pre-lithiated/sodiated for LIC/NIC assembly. The CS-AC and pre-treated HC based materials registered the maximum energy density of ∼121 and ∼82 Wh kg−1 for LIC and NIC assemblies, respectively. An excellent long-term cycleability of ∼83% retention is noted for LIC after 8000 cycles, whereas NIC showed inferior performance (∼60%) under similar testing conditions. Multilayer surface film is the main reason for such performance which has been clearly revealed from the impedance measurements. First, the CS-AC is prepared by hydrothermal carbonization and subsequent chemical activation with ZnCl2 to yield high specific surface area and pore volume of 1795 m2 g−1 and 2.2 cm3 g−1, respectively, in which 71% originated from mesoporous region.