A Dual‐Carbon Potassium‐Ion Capacitor Enabled by Hollow Carbon Fibrous Electrodes with Reduced Graphitization

Abstract

AbstractThe large size of K+ ions (1.38 Å) sets a challenge in achieving high kinetics and long lifespan of potassium storage devices. Here, a fibrous ZrO2 membrane is utilized as a reactive template to construct a dual‐carbon K‐ion capacitor. Unlike graphite, ZrO2‐catalyzed graphitic carbon presents a relatively disordered layer arrangement with an expanded interlayer spacing of 0.378 nm to accommodate K+ insertion/extraction. Pyridine‐derived nitrogen sites can locally store K‐ions without disrupting the formation of stage‐1 graphite intercalation compounds (GICs). Consequently, N‐doped hollow graphitic carbon fiber achieves a K+‐storage capacity (primarily below 1 V), which is 1.5 time that of commercial graphite. Potassium‐ion hybrid capacitors are assembled using the hollow carbon fiber electrodes and the ZrO2 nanofiber membrane as the separator. The capacitor exhibits a high power of 40 000 W kg−1, full charge in 8.5 s, 93% capacity retention after 5000 cycles at 2 A g−1, and a low self‐discharge rate of 8.6 mV h−1. The scalability and high performance of the lattice‐expanded tubular carbon electrodes underscores may advance the practical potassium‐ion capacitors.