Electrochemical performance of activated carbon treated by vacuum impregnation using fluorinated surfactant

Abstract

The activated carbon (AC) is treated by vacuum impregnation using the non-ionic, cation and anionic fluorinated surfactant (FS). The AC treated with FS (FS-AC) is characterised by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravity analytical, scanning electron microscopy and electrochemical measurements. The AC electrode supercapacitor treated with anionic FS exhibits the best electrochemical performance. Specifically, its specific capacity is 194·8 F g⁻¹, and its internal impedance is 1·55 Ω. The charging–discharging efficiency is 98·4% after 2000 charging/discharging tests in 0·8M tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate–propylene carbonate electrolyte.

Keywords:

• Activated carbon
• Fluorinated surfactant
• Vacuum impregnation
• Supercapacitor

The authors wish to thank the National High-tech R&D Program of China (grant no. 2012AA110302), the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 21206083) and the Key Laboratory Project of the Higher Education Institutions of Liaoning Province of China (grant nos. LS2012398 and LJQ2011121) for supporting the research.