A novel coral structured porous-like amorphous carbon derived from zinc-based fluorinated metal-organic framework as superior cathode material for high performance supercapacitors

In this study, a new porous-like amorphous carbon is obtained via zinc-based fluorinated metal-organic framework as carbon rich source by a template free thermal treatment at 750 °C under the nitrogen atmosphere. This porous-like amorphous carbon is further used as cathode material for high-performance supercapacitors. The porous carbon possesses a huge specific surface area of 1234 m2 g−1 with ordered mesoporous arrangement. The electrochemical activities of the fabricating materials are assessed by cyclic voltammetry and charge-discharge analysis in 6 M KOH electrolyte. Results reveal that porous-like amorphous carbon displays a superior specific capacitance of 360 and 322 F g−1 at a scan rate of 1 mV s−1 and current density of 1 A g−1, respectively with specific energy density of 70 Wh kg−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1, which are much better than the reported porous carbons in the literatures. In addition, this carbon material shows an excellent capacitance retention of 98.6% and 95.8% at the ultra-high current densities of 50 and 100 A g−1, respectively after 100,000 cycles. Therefore, the outstanding capacitive characteristics with high electrochemical stability of the novel porous-like amorphous carbon demonstrate that it will be a promising electrode material for ultra-fast supercapacitors.