| Sustainable Hierarchical Porous Carbon Materials from Tannic Acid for Supercapacitors |
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Hyung-Jin Kim1, Byoung-Min Lee2, Su-Jin Kang1, Jae-Hak Choi1,3, Je Moon Yun4,5 |
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34134, Korea
2Anchor Center, Shinhan University, 95 Hoam-ro, Uijeongbu-si 11644, Korea
3Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34134, Korea
4Division of Advanced Energy Engineering, Dong-Eui University, 176 Eongwangno, Busanjin-gu, Busan 47340, Korea
5Center for Brain Busan 21 Plus Program, Busan, 47340, South Korea |
Correspondence:
Jae-Hak Choi,
Email: jaehakchoi@cnu.ac.kr
Je Moon Yun,
Email: jmyun@deu.ac.kr
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Received: 6 April 2026 • Accepted: 30 July 2026
*Hyung-Jin Kim, Byoung-Min Lee and Su-Jin Kang contributed equally to this study as co-first authors. |
| Abstract |
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Hierarchically porous carbon materials (HPCMs) with tailored multi-scale pore architectures are highly promising for high-performance supercapacitors due to their combined advantages in ion transport and charge storage. In this study, HPCMs were synthesized from renewable tannic acid (TA) and environmentally benign potassium citrate (PC) via a green strategy involving ice-templating followed by direct carbonization. The ice-templating process facilitated the formation of macroporous channels, while in-situ activation by PC generated abundant micro- and mesopores, resulting in a well-interconnected hierarchical porous network. As the PC content increased, the specific surface area and total pore volume of the resulting HPCMs improved markedly, reaching 1311.4 m2 g–1 and 0.76 cm3 g–1, respectively, for the optimized C-TAPC10 sample. Electrochemical measurements revealed that C-TAPC10 delivered an outstanding specific capacitance of 311.66 F g–1 at 1 A g–1 in a three-electrode system using 6.0 M KOH electrolyte, along with moderate rate capability (retaining 39.90% at 50 A g–1), and low internal resistance. When assembled into a symmetric two-electrode device, the material achieved a high power density of 10.0 kW kg–1 and exhibited exceptional cycling durability, retaining nearly 100% of its initial capacitance after 20,000 charge-discharge cycles. These results demonstrate that the TAPC-derived HPCMs offer a sustainable, scalable, and cost-effective route to fabricating high-performance electrode materials. The integration of bio-derived carbon precursors and mild activation conditions presents a viable pathway for the development of next-generation eco-friendly supercapacitors. |
| Keywords:
tannic acid, potassium citrate, supercapacitor, ice-templating, carbonization |
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