• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.115-121
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• 2021

MnO2 can be potentially utilized as an electrode material for redox capacitors. The deposition of MnO2 with poor electrical conductivity onto porous carbons supplies them with additional conductive paths; as a result, the capacitance of the electrical double layer formed on the porous carbon surface can be utilized together with the redox capacitance of MnO2. However, the obtained composites are not generally suitable for industrial production because they require the use of expensive porous carbons and/or inefficient fabrication methods. Thus, to develop an effective preparation procedure of the composite, a suitable structure of porous carbons must be determined. In this study, MnO2/C composites have been prepared from activated carbon gels with various pore sizes, and their electrical properties are investigated via cyclic voltammetry. In particular, mesoporous carbons with a pore size of around 20 nm form a composite with a relatively low capacitance (98 F/g-composite) and poor rate performance despite the moderate redox capacitance obtained for MnO2 (313 F/g-MnO2). On the other hand, using macro-porous carbons with a pore size of around 60 nm increases the MnO2 redox capacitance (399 F/g-MnO2) as well as the capacitance and rate performance of the entire material (203 F/g-composite). The obtained results can be used in the industrial manufacturing of MnO2/C composites for supercapacitor electrodes from the commercially available porous carbons.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.117-124
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• 2002

Poly(acrylonitrile)(PAN) solutions in dimethylformamide(DMF) were electrospun to prepare webs consisting of 400nm ultra-fine fibers. The webs were oxidatively stabilized, activated by steam and resulted to be activated carbon fibers(ACFs). The specific surface area was $800\~1230 m^2/g$, which showed a trend of a decrease of the surface area with an increase in activation temperature, showing opposite behavior to the other ACFs. The activation energy of the stabilized fibers for the steam activation was determined as 29.2 kJ/mol to be relatively low indicating the easier activation than that of other carbonized fibers. The ACF webs were characterized by pore size and specific surface uea which would be related to the specific capacitance of the electrical double layer capacitor (EDLC). The specific capacitances measured were 27 F/g, 25 F/g, 22 F/g at the respective activation temperature of $700^{circ}C,\;750^{\circ}C\;800^{\circ}C$, showing similar trend with the specific surface area i.e., the higher activation temperature was, the lower specific capacitance resulted.