Studies On The Preparation Of Carbon Aerogels And Its Application As Electrode Material For Supercapacitor

Alkaline earth compounds were used as catalyst to synthesize carbon aerogels. The morphology of the carbon aerogels catalyzed with magnesium acetate shows a coarser surface. Its specific surface area and total pore volune are 536m2/g, 0.24cm3/g respectively. Carbon aerogels catalyzed with magnesium hydroxide consists of well-pronounced spherical carbon particles with smooth surface. Its specific surface area and total pore volune are 699m2/g,0.34cm3/g respectively. The electrochemical test including cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge has been executed, it was found that the carbon aerogel catalyzed with magnesium hydroxide is an excellent electrode, its specific capacitance can reach 89.8F/g.In order to improve the pore structure of the carbon aerogels, carbon aerogels has been readily synthesized using magnesium hydroxide as catalyst based upon a polycondensation of resorcinol with formaldehyde as well as triblock copolymer as a surfactant. The presence of mesopores arises from the decomposition F127 during the carbonization step. The obtained carbon aerogels shows spherical appearance but with coarser surface. The electrochemical test showed that carbon aerogels electrode has higher capacitance because of the presence of mesopores which makes easier the diffusion of the ions to the active surface. Its specific capacitance increased from 89.8 F/g to 130.8 F/g.In order to enhance specific capacitance of carbon aerogels, nickel oxide were loaded into spherical carbon aerogels by suspending the spherical carbon aerogels in a Ni(NO3)2 solution followed by neutralization. Its specific capacitance increased from 89.8 to 136 F/g. By comparison,we also investigate the properties of CMK-3 as well as NiO embedded within the pore channel of CMK-3. The specific capacitance of CMK-3/NiO increased from 140 F/g to 205F/g.In addition,nitratein such as Ni(NO3)2, Fe(NO3)3 were added to the initial solution during the synthesis of carbon aerogels, with respect to metal oxide being embedded into the wall of carbon aerogels. The results showed that the capacitance of carbon aerogels doped with Ni(NO3)2 was 198F/g, the specific capacitance of carbon aerogels doped with Fe(NO3)3 was 165F/g.