Fabrication of Activated Carbon Fibers/Carbon Aerogels Composites by Gelation and Supercritical Drying in Isopropanol

Abstract

Activated carbon fiber/carbon aerogel (ACF/CA) composites were fabricated by gelling a mixture of ACF and resorcinol and furfural, followed by supercritical drying of the mixture in isopropanol. The product then went through carbonization in a nitrogen atmosphere. The fabrication conditions, such as the mass content of R–F, the content of the ACF added, and the gelation temperature, were explored. The textures and pore structures of the ACF/CA composites thus obtained were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and a surface area analyzer. The mechanical properties of the samples were assessed primarily through compressive tests. The experimental results indicated that the added ACF disperses uniformly in the resulting ACF/CA composites. The carbon matrix of the ACF/CA composites also consisted of interconnected carbon nanoparticles with sizes in the range of 20 to 30 nm. The ACFs can reinforce the related carbon aerogels when they originally have low mass density and are weak in mechanical strength. When large amounts of ACF were added to the composites, the micropore area and micropore volume of the composites increased, but their external surface area decreased. The mesopore volumes and the related diameters and mesopore size distributions of the ACF/CA composites were mainly affected by the mass density of the composites. The micropore sizes of all the composites were sharply concentrated at about 0.5 nm.

Electrochemical properties of conductive filler/carbon aerogel composites as electrodes of supercapacitors

“…At first, due to the time-consuming preparation and critical dried conditions, CAs were not in large-scale productions [7]. To solve the problems, new preparation methods were developed [8][9][10]. For example, ambient pressure drying preparation of CAs was explored by Wu et al [11].…”

Some Studies on the Synthesis and Characterization of Carbon Aerogel

“…Pekalar et al 15 examined carbon aerogels as electrode for double layer capacitors, pseudo capacitors and capacitive deionization units. In another work Fu et al 16 fabricated activated carbon fiber (ACF)/ carbon aerogel (CA) composites by gelling a mixture of ACF and resorcinol and furfural, followed by supercritical drying of the mixture in isopropanol. It was observed that the mesopore volumes and the related diameters and mesopore size distributions of the ACF/CA composites were mainly affected by the mass density of the composites.…”

Facile synthesis of hierarchical porous carbon derived from carboxyl graphene oxide/phenolic foam for high performance supercapacitors

“…The reported work indicated that the incorporation of 1D or 2D carbon materials with the small proportion, such as carbon bers and graphene, could effectively prevent or alleviate the collapse. [30][31][32] Zou et al synthesized the three-dimensional (3D) N/O-doped activated carbon by adopting silkworm cocoon and phenolic resin, and the silkworm cocoon as carbon bers aer carbonization was used as a good framework to make the composite materials more hierarchical porosity and exible. 33 Therefore, it was only a lower surface area of 499 m 2 g À1 but a higher specic capacitance of 239 F g À1 at current density of 0.57 A g À1 .…”