Various Treated Conditions to Prepare Porous Activated Carbon Fiber for Application in Supercapacitor Electrodes

Abstract

Porous activated carbon fiber (ACF) is prepared from oxidized polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber through three activation methods, which are traditional chemical activation, traditional physical activation, and ameliorative chemical activation. The samples under various high temperature heat treatments are used as electrode for the supercapacitor. The structure and electrochemical properties of these samples are then characterized by nitrogen adsorption at 77 K, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectrum, electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ECSA), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and galvanotactic charge/discharge, respectively. Once formed by the ameliorative chemical activation method, which is used for the electrodes of supercapacitors, the samples exhibited excellent capacitance characteristics in the 1 M H2SO4 electrolyte and showed a high specific capacitance of 158 F/g, which is higher than the two traditional activation methods. HP20−1/3−900 presents a high specific capacitance of 173 F/g in 1 M H2SO4 electrolyte and a high discharge capacitance of 180 F/g. Moreover, HP20−1/3−900 has near triangular shapes, reflecting their excellent charge/discharge capacitive performance. Results of this study demonstrate that the ameliorative activation process for preparing makes this activated carbon fiber a highly promising electrode material for industrial applications of supercapacitors.