Quasi 2D Mesoporous Carbon Microbelts Derived from Fullerene Crystals as an Electrode Material for Electrochemical Supercapacitors.

Fullerene C60 microbelts were fabricated using the liquid-liquid interfacial precipitation method and converted into quasi 2D mesoporous carbon microbelts by heat treatment at elevated temperatures of 900 and 2000 °C. The carbon microbelts obtained by heat treatment of fullerene C60 microbelts at 900 °C showed excellent electrochemical supercapacitive performance, exhibiting high specific capacitances ca. 360 F g-1 (at 5 mV s-1) and 290 F g-1 (at 1 A g-1) because of the enhanced surface area and the robust mesoporous framework structure. Additionally, the heat-treated carbon microbelt showed good rate performance, retaining 49% of capacitance at a high scan rate of 10 A g-1. The carbon belts exhibit super cyclic stability. Capacity loss was not observed even after 10 000 charge/discharge cycles. These results demonstrate that the quasi 2D mesoporous carbon microbelts derived from a π-electron-rich carbon source, fullerene C60 crystals, could be used as a new candidate material for electrochemical supercapacitor applications.