Electrochemical Evaluation of a Novel Boron Doped Diamond (BDD) Material for Application as Potential Electrochemical Capacitor

Abstract

Highly boron doped chemical vapor deposition (CVD) polycrystalline diamond plates have been crushed under high pressure to produce a sintered mass boron doped diamond sheet with an approximate doping level of 10^18–21 atoms/cm³. The electrochemical performance of the sintered mass CVD boron doped diamond material (SM-BDD) was evaluated for suitability as a material for the design of electrical double-layer capacitors. The SM-BDD material was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The SEM confirmed the high degree of surface roughness and increased surface area compared to commercial polycrystalline BDD. The EDX and FTIR confirmed the presence of boron doping. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) revealed that the SM-BDD displayed the classical rectangular cyclic voltammogram associated with highly capacitive materials. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) equivalent circuit fitting data was used to calculate the specific energy for the SM-BDD to be in the range 1.3–1.8 W h/kg, which is typical for electrochemical capacitors.

Keywords:

• Boron doped diamond
• Cyclic voltammetry
• Electrochemical capacitors
• Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

Acknowledgments

This paper is part of a Special Issue of Analytical Letters focusing on papers presented at the 10th International Symposium on Kinetics in Analytical Chemistry (KAC-10).

The authors would like to thank NRF for the financial support, and Element six for supplying the materials.