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Vol. 18 (2026)

Integrated Performance Metrics of Porous Carbon Toward Practical Supercapacitor Devices

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-026-02069-z
Yuting Song
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surface, College of Materials, Fujian Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Engineering for High Performance Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, People’s Republic of China
Sicheng Fan
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surface, College of Materials, Fujian Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Engineering for High Performance Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, People’s Republic of China
Zerui Yan
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surface, College of Materials, Fujian Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Engineering for High Performance Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, People’s Republic of China
Dafu Tang
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surface, College of Materials, Fujian Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Engineering for High Performance Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, People’s Republic of China
Xiang Gao
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surface, College of Materials, Fujian Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Engineering for High Performance Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, People’s Republic of China
Jiawei Guo
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surface, College of Materials, Fujian Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Engineering for High Performance Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, People’s Republic of China
Yunlong Zhao
Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW72BX, UK
Qiulong Wei
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surface, College of Materials, Fujian Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Engineering for High Performance Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Qiulong Wei

qlwei@xmu.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 18 (2026), Article Number: 219

Abstract

The scientific communities in both academia and industry are devoted to increasing energy density of supercapacitor devices, including investigating the relationship between carbon structure and capacitance of various activated carbon (AC) materials. However, most reported capacitance values are measured solely at the material level, which are difficult to directly translate into achievable energy densities for practical supercapacitor devices. In this work, we assemble supercapacitor pouch cells to reveal the insight relationships between the capacitance and porosity of AC materials and the optimal amount of electrolyte at the device level. Concurrently, a guidance on the required amount of electrolyte is provided, indicating that both the specific capacitance and porosity of AC materials collectively determine the energy density of a practical device (Edevice). Furthermore, we develop a computational E-tool for directly predicting Edevice at an early stage of material-level electrochemical testing. Finally, we propose a new descriptor (η) that incorporates both the capacitance and porosity parameters of AC materials, which displays a linear relationship with Edevice. This study provides a reliable E-tool and η for accelerating the development of advanced charge storage mechanisms and carbon materials for practical supercapacitor devices.


Highlights:
1 This work establishs a guidance of required amount of electrolyte for activated carbons in supercapacitor devices.
2 A novel E-tool is provided for predicting the energy density of supercapacitor devices via the inputting of intrinsic parameters of activated carbons.
3 A new descriptor η, that integrates capacitance and porosity of activated carbon electrode, is able to quickly evaluate the energy density of supercapacitor devices.

Keywords

Supercapacitors Energy density Activated carbon E-tool New descriptor
Song, Yuting, Sicheng Fan, Zerui Yan, Dafu Tang, Xiang Gao, Jiawei Guo, Yunlong Zhao, and Qiulong Wei. 2026. “Integrated Performance Metrics of Porous Carbon Toward Practical Supercapacitor Devices”. Nano-Micro Letters 18 (January):219. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-026-02069-z.
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