Plasma Surface Functionalization of Carbon Nanofibres with Silver, Palladium and Platinum Nanoparticles for Cost-Effective and High-Performance Supercapacitors

Abstract

Due to their relatively low cost, large surface area and good chemical and physical properties, carbon nanofibers (CNFs) are attractive for the fabrication of electrodes for supercapacitors (SCs). However, their relatively low electrical conductivity has impeded their practical application. To this end, a novel active-screen plasma activation and deposition technology has been developed to deposit silver, platinum and palladium nanoparticles on activated CNFs surfaces to increase their specific surface area and electrical conductivity, thus improving the specific capacitance. The functionalised CNFs were fully characterised using scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) and their electrochemical properties were evaluated using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results showed a significant improvement in specific capacitance, as well as electrochemical impedance over the untreated CNFs. The functionalisation of CNFs via environmental-friendly active-screen plasma technology provides a promising future for cost-effective supercapacitors with high power and energy density.

Pd‐Doped Cellulose Carbon Aerogels for Energy Storage Applications

“…This suggests an enhancement in the electrical double layer capacitance, which can be attributed to the increase of electrochemically active surface areas for the ions adsorption provided by the Pd. [ 26,27 ] The Pd particles increase the conductivity of the carbon network enhancing the ion diffusion toward the ultramicropores. These pores are the most active in the charge storage, however, its exploitation depends on the conductivity of the carbon matrix.…”

“…[ 25 ] Furthermore, carbon‐based materials decorated with PdNPs do not show pseudocapacitive effect, however, the addition of PdNPs facilitates an enhancement in the electrical double layer capacitance by providing larger electrochemically active surface areas for ions adsorption. [ 26,27 ] Additionally, Pd decorated conductive polymers have exhibited improvements related to cycle stability and rate capability. [ 28,29 ]…”

“…However, to the best of our knowledge, there are solely few reports demonstrating the use of PdNPs in supercapacitors applications, [ 26–29 ] and there are no reports about using cellulose as organic, cheap, and abundant precursor of Pd decorated carbon aerogels. Therefore, the present paper analyzes the electrochemical and physicochemical properties of Pd‐doped cellulose carbon aerogels as a novel carbon‐metal hybrid material obtained through cryogelation, which is a versatile tool for preparing aerogels from different colloidal nanoparticles.…”

Editorial for the Special Issue on Carbon Based Electronic Devices

“…A wide spectra of carbon materials and a wide range of applications are described in the present issue. As per material type, papers deal with graphene and graphene-oxide [1][2][3][4], carbon nanotubes [2,5,6] and with other forms of carbon, such as porous carbon [7] and nanofibers [8,9]. A plethora of devices are witnessing the versatility of carbon materials: supercapacitors [1,9], non-volatile memories [8], pressure sensors [2,7], field-effect transistors [10], white-light photosensors [3], cold cathode electron emitters [5], gas and humidity detectors [6,11], MEMS and NEMS [12], carbon based inks for 3D microfluidic MEMS [13], transparent conductive electrodes [4].…”

“…An innovative (faster and cheaper) method to produce liquid-metal electrodes for graphene field-effect transistors is discussed by Melcher et al [10]. The use of a new technique (active-screen plasma) to functionalize and decorate carbon nanofibres with metals for supercapacitor applications is presented by Li et al [9]. A method aimed to overcome the limitation of standard approaches in preparing graphene-based photosensors is discussed and detailed by Tu et al [3].…”