Electrochemical performance of polyacrylonitrile-derived activated carbon prepared via IR pyrolysis

Abstract A new procedure employing infrared radiation to produce a nitrogen-containing highly porous carbon material based on polyacrylonitrile has been developed. The carbon material with a specific surface area of 1986 m 2  g −1 demonstrated a specific capacitance up to 210 F g −1 , which can be attributed to an electrical double-layer capacitance of about 160 F g −1 combined with a pseudo-capacitance of about 50 F g −1 associated with the redox reactions of the nitrogen-containing surface groups.