A novel activated carbon for supercapacitors

Highlights: ► A novel activated carbon was prepared from phenol–melamine–formaldehyde resin. ► The carbon has large surface area with microporous, and high heteroatom content. ► Heteroatom-containing functional groups can improve the pseudo-capacitance. ► Physical and chemical properties lead to the good electrochemical properties. -- Abstract: A novel activated carbon has been prepared by simple carbonization and activation of phenol–melamine–formaldehyde resin which is synthesized by the condensation polymerization method. The morphology, thermal stability, surface area, elemental composition and surface chemical composition of samples have been investigated by scanning electron microscope, thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller measurement, elemental analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. Electrochemical properties have been studied by cyclic voltammograms, galvanostatic charge/discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements in 6 mol L−1 potassium hydroxide. The activated carbon shows good capacitive behavior and the specific capacitance is up to 210 F g−1, which indicates that it may be a promising candidate for supercapacitors.