Electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs) offer both high power density and excellent cyclic stability and their electrodes are typically made of activated carbon, commonly a derivative of coconut shells. Activated carbon made through pyrolysis of coconut shells offer large surface area while retain relatively high density, so relatively high volumetric energy and power density can be attained. However, both porous structure and chemistry of activated carbon are difficult to control to achieve higher energy storage performance in EDLCs. Highly porous carbon prepared through sol-gel processing has demonstrated advantages of easy processing and good control of porous structure and chemical composition. When used as electrodes in EDLCs, higher power and energy densities can be readily achieved. In this presentation, I will focus on the surface modification of highly porous carbon synthesized through sol-gel processing with heteroatoms such as nitrogen and sulfur, metal nanoparticles, and organic molecules to alter the surface chemistry and the density of states to increase the capacitance without changing the chemistry and physical properties of the carbon network. I will present and discuss the chemical processing for surface modification, the characterization of porous structure, surface chemistry and the electrochemical properties of the resulting porous carbon as well as the capacitor performance when such carbon was used as electrodes.

Surface modification of highly porous carbon for enhanced electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs)

248th National Meeting (2014)

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