KOH‐assisted microwave post‐treatment of activated carbon for efficient symmetrical double‐layer capacitors

It is important to tune the surface and pore structures of carbon materials for their application in capacitors. Herein, a novel microwave‐based approach is demonstrated to significantly increase the capacity of a supercapacitor. After activated carbon (AC) with KOH was treated by microwave heating only for 8 min, its symmetrical double‐layer capacitor increased from 68.6 to 107.9 F/g at current density of 0.2 A/g with 2 M KOH aqueous solution. The excellent capacity retention of 96% was obtained even after 4000 galvanostatic charge/discharge cycles at current density of 5 A/g. This microwave approach is much more efficient than the conventional heating process to tune the electrochemical properties of AC. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.