Review of nanostructured carbon materials for electrochemical capacitor applications: advantages and limitations of activated carbon, carbide‐derived carbon, zeolite‐templated carbon, carbon aerogels, carbon nanotubes, onion‐like carbon, and graphene

Abstract

Electric double layer capacitors, also called supercapacitors, ultracapacitors, and electrochemical capacitors, are gaining increasing popularity in high power energy storage applications. Novel carbon materials with high surface area, high electrical conductivity, as well as a range of shapes, sizes and pore size distributions are being constantly developed and tested as potential supercapacitor electrodes. This article provides an overview of the electrochemical studies on activated carbon, carbide derived carbon, zeolite‐templated carbon, carbon aerogel, carbon nanotube, onion‐like carbon, and graphene. We discuss the key performance advantages and limitations of various nanostructured carbon materials and provide an overview of the current understanding of the structure–property relationships related to the transport and adsorption of electrolyte ions on their surfaces, specific and volumetric capacitance, self‐discharge, cycle life, electrolyte stability, and others. We discuss the impact of microstructural defects, pore size distribution, pore tortuosity, chemistry and functional groups on the carbon surface, nanoscale curvature, and carbon‐electrolyte interfacial energy. Finally, we review state‐of‐the art commercial large scale applications of supercapacitors, including their use in smart grids and distributed energy storage, hybrid electric and electric vehicles, energy efficient industrial equipment, ships, wind power stations, uninterruptible power supplies, power backup, and consumer devices. WIREs Energy Environ 2014, 3:424–473. doi: 10.1002/wene.102 This article is categorized under: Fuel Cells and Hydrogen > Science and Materials Energy Infrastructure > Science and Materials Energy and Development > Science and Materials Energy Research & Innovation > Science and Materials

N-doped microporous carbon microspheres for high volumetric performance supercapacitors

“…Indeed, whereas the N-CS-850 has a packing density of 0.97 g cm -3 , the activated samples exhibit values of 0.51 g cm -3 for N-CSA-700 and 0.59 g cm -3 in the case of N-CSA-600. However, despite this decrease, these values are still superior to those of other many carbon nanomaterials [7,15]. Finally, it needs to be pointed out that the activated microspheres possess good electrical conductivities of 1.7 S cm -1 in the case of N-CSA-700 and 1.9 S cm -1 in the case of N-CSA-600, values which are even superior to that of the templated sample N-CS-850 (0.02 S cm -1 ).…”

“…High surface area carbon materials have been recognized as the most promising, user-friendly electrode materials due to their low cost, wide availability, non-toxic nature, environmental friendliness, and stability [2][3][4][5][6][7].…”

“…Therefore, their capacitance depends mostly on the surface area accessible to the electrolyte, and the main factors influencing their electrochemical performance being their specific surface area and pore-size distribution [3,5,7]. In general, carbon materials with high specific surface areas and a large number of narrow micropores have a higher capability for charge accumulation at the electrode/electrolyte interface [6,7]. In addition, capacitance performance can be improved by the incorporation of certain types of heteroatoms such as nitrogen into the carbon framework [3,8].…”

A review of low density porous materials used in laser plasma experiments

“…53,55 Carbonized RF is of interest to a number of research fields including high energy density (HED) matter relating to battery and capacitor technology. [73][74][75][76] These carbonized materials are of interest because they contain only carbon and have the advantage of being the lowest Z composition porous materials possible. This can be achieved by furnace heating of RF aerogels.…”

Quinone‐Decorated Onion‐Like Carbon/Carbon Fiber Hybrid Electrodes for High‐Rate Supercapacitor Applications

“…[17] Such performance is low compared to AC or other porous carbons, with typicallym ore than 1200 m 2 g À1 and more than 100 Fg À1 . [23] Yet, even the latter value corresponds to an energy density roughly one order of magnitude below that of lithium-ion batteries, which resultsi nv ast researche fforts being invested in exploring facile ways to enhance the energystoragec apacity of supercapacitors. [5,24] Currently,t he literatureshows two general approaches to increase the capacitance of carbon materials:1 )increasingt he operation voltage by using advanced electrolytes or 2) adding redox-active materials for so-called pseudocapacitors.I nt he case of carbons with moderate or non-optimized pore structures, there is at hird approach:3 )increasing the SSA through chemicalo rp hysicala ctivation.F or example, physical activation in air [22] or chemical activation with H 2 SO 4 /HNO 3 or KOH mixtures [25] was demonstrated to increase the surface area of OLCs to 650-820m 2 g À1 with ac apacitance of more than 120 Fg À1 in aqueous electrolytes.…”