'Fine-tuned' carbon promises better batteries

Prof Zhenan Bao, lead researcher on the project, and author of a report in the journal ACS Central Science, claims that the new material represents a dramatic improvement over conventional activated carbon, which is currently used widely in energy-storage devices.

A lot of activated carbon is made by burning coconut shells at high temperatures and then applying a chemical treatment. This process creates nanosized holes that increase the surface area of the carbon, allowing it to catalyse more chemical reactions and store more electrical charges.

However, according to Bao, activated carbon does have a number of drawbacks: there is little interconnectivity between the pores, which limits their ability to transport electricity, whilst impurities from the coconut shells can also affect performance.

Instead, Bao and her colleagues developed a new way to synthesise high-quality carbon using inexpensive - and uncontaminated - chemicals and polymers.