Self-activation of cellulose: A new preparation methodology for activated carbon electrodes in electrochemical capacitors
Current synthetic methods of biomass-derived activated carbon call for a costly chemical or physical activation process. Herein, we report a simple one-step annealing synthesis yielding a high surface area cellulose-derived activated carbon. We discover that simply varying the flow rate of Argon during pyrolysis enables ‘self-activation’ reactions that can tune the specific surface areas of the resulting carbon, ranging from 98 m2/g to values as high as 2600 m2/g. Furthermore, we, for the first time, observe a direct evolution of H2 from the pyrolysis, which gives strong evidence towards an in situ self-activation mechanism. Surprisingly, the obtained activated carbon is a crumbled graphene nanostructure composed of interconnected sheets, making it ideal for use in an electrochemical capacitor. The cellulose-derived nanoporous carbon exhibits a capacitance of 132 F g-1 at 1 A g-1, a performance comparable to the state-of-the-art activated carbons. This work presents a fundamentally new angle to look at the synthesis of activated carbon, and highlights the importance of a controlled inert gas flow rate during synthesis in general, as its contributions can have a very large impact on the final material properties.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1392043
- Journal Information:
- Nano Energy, Vol. 13, Issue C; ISSN 2211-2855
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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