• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.285-295
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• 2024

PVDC-resin transforms into porous carbon through the removal of heteroatoms during heat treatment. When PVDC-resin mixed with chemical agent undergoes heat treatment, it transforms into porous carbon with a significant surface area. In this study, we aim to produce porous carbon using PVDC-resin as a precursor by mixing it with an inexpensive CuO agent in various ratios (1:1, 1:2) and varying the process temperatures (750℃, 950℃). To utilize the developed porous carbon as electrode for supercapacitors, this study explored the formation of micropores and mesopores during the activation process. The porous characteristics and specific surface area of the synthesized porous carbon were estimated using N₂ isotherm. The specific capacitance and rate capability required for supercapacitor electrodes were evaluated through cyclic voltammetry. Experimental results demonstrated that when the precursor and agent were mixed in a 1:2 ratio, a high surface areal carbon with numerous micropores and mesopores was obtained. When the activation was performed at 950℃, no impurities remained from the agent, resulting in high rate performance. The porous carbon synthesized using PVDC-resin and CuO demonstrated high specific surface area and excellent rate capability, indicating its potential as an electrode material for supercapacitors.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.207-211
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• 2012

Spinel-$Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$ was successfully synthesized by a solid-phase method at 800, 850, and $900^{\circ}C$ according to the $Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$ cubic spinel phase structure. To achieve higher EDLC energy density with the $Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$, the negative electrode of the hybrid supercapacitor was studied in this work. The electrochemical performances of the hybrid supercapacitor and EDLC were characterized by constant current discharge curves, c-rate, and cycle performance testing. The capacitance (1st cycle) of the hybrid supercapacitor and EDLC was 209 and 109 F, respectively, which is higher than EDLC. The capacitance of the hybrid supercapacitor decreases from 209 F to 101 F after 20 cycles when discharged at several specific current densities ranging from 1 to 10 A. In contrast, capacitance of the EDLC hardly decreases after 20 cycles. Results show that hybrid supercapacitor benefits from the high rate capability of supercapacitor and high capacity of the battery. Findings also prove that the hybrid supercapacitor is an energy storage device where the supercapacitor and the Li ion secondary battery coexist in one cell system.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.416-424
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• 2024

Supercapacitors as energy storage devices require specific capacitance and rate capability improvements to achieve high energy and power densities. Activated carbon, commonly used as an electrode for supercapacitors, should have a porous structure for high capacitance and the large mesopores for high power. This study aims to produce mesoporous carbon for supercapacitors from the mixture of polyvinylidene chloride-resin (PVDC-resin) precursor and ZnO activating agent at a controlled mixing ratio via heat treatment. To synthesize porous carbon with high specific capacitance and high rate performance, PVDC-resin and ZnO were mixed in various ratios and activated at 950℃. Analysis of the pore structure and surface area of the synthesized carbon samples showed that the specific surface area and the amounts of micropores and mesopores also increased with more ZnO agents. Notably, the porous carbon synthesized from PVDC-resin to ZnO at a 2:3 ratio exhibited a high specific capacitance of 125 F g^-1 and excellent rate performance of 74%, demonstrating its potential as an optimal supercapacitor electrode material based on its surface area and mesoporous structure. This study identifies the optimal mixing ratio of PVDC-resin precursor and ZnO activator for the economical and efficient synthesis of activated carbon.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2022

The activated carbon is a very good choice for using as supercapacitor electrode materials. Herein, the flower of Shorea robusta, a bio-waste material was successfully used to synthesize the activated carbons for application as supercapacitor electrode materials. The activated carbon was synthesized through chemical activation process followed by thermal treatment at 700℃ in presence of N₂ atmosphere using KOH, ZnCl₂ and H₃PO₄ as the activating agents. The physicochemical analyses demonstrate that the obtained activated carbons are graphitic in nature and the degree of disorder of the graphitic carbons is changed with the activating agents. The activated carbon obtained from Shorea robusta flower (ACSF-K) electrode shows the specific capacitance of ~610 F g^-1 at 2 A g^-1 current density, which is higher than ACSF-Z (560 F g^-1) and ACSF-H (470 F g^-1) electrode material under the identical current density. The synthesized graphitic carbons also demonstrated good rate capability and high electrochemical stability as supercapacitor electrode.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.338-343
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• 2017

Activated carbon has lower electrical conductivity and reliability than other carbonaceous materials because of the oxygen functional groups that form during the activation process. This problem can be overcome by doping the material with heteroatoms to reduce the number of oxygen functional groups. In the present study, N, F co-doped activated carbon (AC-NF) was successfully prepared by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method, utilizing commercial activated carbon (AC-R) as the precursor and ammonium tetrafluoroborate as the single source for the co-doping of N and F. AC-NF showed improved electrical conductivity ($3.8\;S\;cm^{-1}$) with N and F contents of 0.6 and 0.1 at%, respectively. The introduction of N and F improved the performance of the pertinent supercapacitor: AC-NF exhibited an improved rate capability at current densities of $0.5-50mA\;cm^{-2}$. The rate capability was higher compared to that of raw activated carbon because N and F codoping increased the electrical conductivity of AC-NF. The developed method for the co-doping of N and F using a single source is cost-effective and yields AC-NF with excellent electrochemical properties; thus, it has promising applications in the commercialization of energy storage devices.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.239-246
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• 2015

The hybridization of carbon nano-materials enhances the efficiency of each function of the resulting structure or composites. Also, the addition of non-carbon elements to nanomaterials modifies the electrochemical properties. Electrodes combining porous carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and metal oxides benefit from the combination of the double-layer capacitance of the CNFs and the pseudocapacitive character associated with the surface redox-type reactions. Consequently, they demonstrate superior supercapacitor performance in terms of high capacitance, high energy/power efficiency and high rate capability. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the latest advances made in the development and application of various metal oxide/CNF composites (CNFCs) to supercapacitor electrodes.

• Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
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• v.68
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• pp.173-179
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• 2018

Electrochemical characterization was conducted on poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-ceramic composite (PVA-CC) separators for supercapacitor applications. The PVA-CC separators were fabricated by mixing various ceramic particles including aluminum oxide ($Al_2O_3$), silicon dioxide ($SiO_2$), and titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) into a PVA aqueous solution. These ceramic particles help to create amorphous regions in the crystalline structure of the polymer matrix to increase the ionic conductivity of PVA. Supercapacitors were assembled using PVA-CC separators with symmetric activated carbon electrodes and electrochemical characterization showed enhanced specific capacitance, rate capability, cycle life, and ionic conductivity. Supercapacitors using the $PVA-TiO_2$ composite separator showed particularly good electrochemical performance with a 14.4% specific capacitance increase over supercapacitors using the bare PVA separator after 1000 cycles. With regards to safety, PVA becomes plasticized when immersed in 6 M KOH aqueous solution, thus there was no appreciable loss in tear resistance when the ceramic particles were added to PVA. Thus, the enhanced electrochemical properties can be attained without reduction in safety making the addition of ceramic nanoparticles to PVA separators a cost-effective strategy for increasing the ionic conductivity of separator materials for supercapacitor applications.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.694-704
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• 2018

Novel $SnO_2$ mixed biochar composite was prepared from banana peel developed as electrode material for supercapacitor using simple chemical co-precipitation method. The physiochemical and morphological properties of activated composite $SnO_2$ mixed biochar were investigated with XRD, FTIR, UV-vis, FESEM and HRTEM. The composite accounts for outstanding electrochemical behavior such as high specific capacitance, significant rate capability and leading to good cycle retention up to 3500 cycles when used as electrode material for supercapacitors. Highly permeable $SnO_2$ mixed biochar derived from banana peel exhibited maximum specific capacitance of $465F\;g^{-1}$ at a scan rate of $10mV\;s^{-1}$ by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and $476Fg^{-1}$ at current density of $0.15Ag^{-1}$ by charge discharge studies significantly higher about 47% than previously reported identical work on banana peel biochar.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.252-259
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• 2016

Di(1-aminopyrene)quinone (DAQ) as a quinone-containing conducting additive is synthesized from a solution reaction of 1-aminopyrene and hydroquinone. To utilize the conductive property of DAQ and its compatibility with activated carbon, a composite electrode for a supercapacitor is also prepared by blending activated carbon and DAQ (3:1 w/w), and its supercapacitive properties are characterized based on the cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge. As a result, the composite electrode adopting DAQ exhibits superior electrochemical properties, such as a higher specific capacitance of up to $160F{\cdot}g^{-1}$ at $100mV{\cdot}s^{-1}$, an excellent high-rate capability of up to $1,000mV{\cdot}s^{-1}$, and a higher cycling stability with a capacitance retention ratio of 82% for the 1,000th cycle.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.115-120
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• 2015

The mechanical and electrochemical properties of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-coated Rayon separator were characterized using potassium polyacrylate (PAAK)-KOH electrolyte. The supercapacitive properties of activated carbon supercapacitor adopting the Rayon/PEO separator and PAAK-KOH electrolyte was also tested. As the PEO content increased, the mechanical strength increased. Room-temperature ionic conductivity of over $10^{-2}S\;cm^{-1}$ was obtained at the PEO content lower than 5 wt.%, applicable to a supercapacitor. As a result, the specific capacitance at $1000mV\;s^{-1}$ of the activated carbon supercapacitor adopting the Rayon/PEO separator and PAAK-KOH electrolyte was highly stable after 1000th cycle. This was due to high rate-capability provided by the fact that PEO coating could fix the entanglements among fiber filaments of Rayon.