A facile method to prepare graphene-coat cotton and its application for lithium battery

Investigation on pore structure regulation of activated carbon derived from sargassum and its application in supercapacitor

In order to realize the effective regulation of the pore structure of activated carbon and optimize its pore structure properties as electrode material, the effects of activation temperature, activation time and impregnation ratio on the specific surface area, total pore volume and average pore diameter of activated carbon prepared by sargassum are studied by orthogonal experiment. In addition, the electrochemical properties of sargassum-based activated carbon (SAC) and the relationship between the gravimetric capacitance and specific surface area of SAC are also studied. The SACs prepared under all conditions have high specific surface area (≥ 2227 m2 g-1) and developed pore structure, in which the pore diameter of micropores mainly concentrated in 0.4 ~ 0.8 nm, the pore diameter of mesopores mainly concentrated in 3 ~ 4 nm, and the number of micropores is far more than that of mesopores. In the activation process, the impregnation ratio has the greatest effect on the specific surface area of SAC, the activation temperature and impregnation ratio have significant effect on the total pore volume of SAC, and the regulation of the average pore diameter of SAC is mainly realized by adjusting the activation temperature. The SACs exhibit typical electric double layer capacitance performances on supercapacitors, delivering superior gravimetric capacitance of 237.3 F g-1 in 6 mol L-1 KOH electrolyte system at current density of 0.5 A g-1 and excellent cycling stability of capacitance retention of 92% after 10,000 cycles. A good linear relationship between gravimetric capacitance and specific surface area of SAC is observed.

Highly Porous Reduced Graphene Oxide-Coated Carbonized Cotton Fibers as Supercapacitor Electrodes

High-surface-area carbon-based capacitors exhibit significant advantages relative to conventional graphite-based systems, such as high power density, low weight, and mechanical flexibility. In this work, novel porous carbon-based electrodes were obtained from commercial cotton fibers (CFs) impregnated with graphene oxide (GO) at different dipping times. A subsequent thermal treatment under inert atmosphere conditions enables the synthesis of electrodes based on reduced GO (RGO) supported on carbon fibers. Those synthetized with 15 min and 30 min of dipping time displayed high specific capacitance given their optimal micro-/ mesoporosity ratio. Particularly, the RGO/CCF15A supercapacitor reports a remarkable specific capacitance of 74.1 F g-1 at 0.2 A g-1 and a high cycling stability with a 97.7% capacitive retention, making this electrode a promising candidate for supercapacitor design. Finally, we conducted a density functional theory study to obtain deeper information about the driving forces leading to the GO/CF structures.