Biomass-based porous carbon beehive prepared in molten KOH for capacitors

Porous carbon with well-defined mesopores and macropores by simply carbonisation of biomass waste i.e. soybean straw in molten KOH at 800 degrees C is reported herein. Benefiting from the high fluidity of high-temperature liquidus molten salt, the released gaseous products during pyrolysis of soybean straw in molten salt leads to a rigorous bubbling phenomenon, contributing to a well-defined beehive-like structure of pyrolysis-derived carbonaceous product with a high surface area up to 1615 m(2) g(-1). When evaluated as electrode material for capacitors, the biomass-derived porous carbon exhibits a high specific capacitance of 140 F g(-1) even at a high current density of 10 A g(-1) in 1 M H2SO4 solution. This study underlines KOH as a green and cost-affordable pore-forming thermal media for biomass waste carbonisation.