Activated carbons (AC) with excellent textural properties have been obtained for the first time from waste polystyrene foam (PF), without any previous treatment, following a simple and conventional two-step procedure (formation of char followed by chemical activation). Even considering that the PF is not a graphitizable material, the best AC produced from this precursor has a very high BET surface area larger than 2700 m² g⁻¹ and a pore volume of 1.2 cm² g⁻¹, with a significant contribution of small mesopores. As a consequence, this AC reveals a surprising capacity to adsorption of relatively large molecules and a high specific capacitance when applied as a supercapacitor electrode. The maximum amount of adsorbed methylene blue obtained by batch equilibrium experiments are greater than 1 g g⁻¹. In the context of the technical difficulties and low economic return of the reuse and recycling of waste PF, this work offers a strategic destination for this environmentally unfriendly residue.

遵循简单且常规的两步操作（先形成炭然后进行化学活化），首先未经处理就从废弃的聚苯乙烯泡沫塑料（PF）中获得具有优异质地特性的活性炭（AC）。即使考虑到PF不是可石墨化的材料，由该前体产生的最佳AC的BET表面积也非常大，大于2700 m ²  g ^-1，孔体积为1.2 cm ²  g ^-1，其中小中孔的贡献很大。结果，当用作超级电容器电极时，该AC显示出令人惊讶的相对较大分子的吸附能力和高比电容。通过间歇平衡实验获得的最大吸附量的亚甲基蓝大于1 g g ^-1。在废物PF的再利用和再循环的技术难题和低经济回报的背景下，这项工作为这种对环境不利的残留物提供了战略目标。