Abstract: Porous carbons used for electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs) were prepared by chemical blending of phenolic resin (PF) and adipic diacid (DA). Chemical reaction of PF with diacid is manifested by a shift of carbonyl stretching peak of diacid to a higher frequency in FT-IR spectra and a higher decomposition temperature of diacid in TG curves. The influences of the ratio of w(DA) to w(PF) on pore structure, adsorption behavior and capacity performance were investigated. The specific surface area and total pore volume increase with the ratio of w(DA) to w(PF) at first and then decrease, reach the maximum at the value of w(PF)/w(DA), which are 550 cm²/g and 0.27 cm³/g, respectively. When the porous carbon used for the electrodes of electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC), a satisfied speci-c capacitances of 145 F/g in 30 wt% KOH aqueous electrolytes is acquired and the capacitance maintenance achieve 70% while the current density enlarged 50 times.

Key words: phenolic resin, adipic diacid, chemical blending, porous carbon, electrochemical performance