Chinese Journal of Applied Chemistry

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Enhanced Activity and Stability of Porous Carbon for Storage Energy by Acid Functionalized-Carbon Nanotubes

FU Yu1, SUN Li2, TIAN Chungui2*, LIN Haibo1*   

  1. (1.College of Chemistry,Jilin University,Changchun 130012,China;
    2.Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry,Ministry of Education of
    the People′s Republic of China,Heilongjiang University,Harbin 150080,China)
  • Received:2013-04-11 Revised:2013-05-09 Published:2013-09-10 Online:2013-09-10

Abstract: In this paper, the acid-functionalized multi-wall carbon nanotubes/porous carbon(AMWCNTs/PC) composites were prepared by an effective method, and the application of the composites for electrochemical energy storage was also studied. In the synthesis, the AMWCNTs were mixed with cyclodextrin by a milling method. The acid treatment was favorable for the formation of a uniform and effective composite due to the enhancement of the interaction of AMWCNTs with cyclodextrin. After carbonization under N2 protection and activation with ZnCl2, the AMWCNTs/PC composites could be obtained. The materials were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The results indicate that the CNTs are uniformly distributed into the framework of the porous carbon, and the materials have a high BET specific surface area and good conductivity. Cyclic voltammetry(CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge(GCD) measurements indicate that the composites have good performances for electrochemical energy storage and a high stability. The AMWCNTs/PC12-4(numbers 12 and 4 represent the mass ratios of cyclodextrin to AMWCNTs and AMWCNTs/PC to ZnCl2, respectively) exhibits a high specific capacitance of 156 F/g, much higher than the AMWCNTs(43 F/g) and PC-4(87 F/g) at 0.5 A/g. Also, the AMWCNTs/PC-12-4 shows superior cycle durability and columbic efficiency over 99.9% after 5000 cycles in KOH, indicating a promising potential for AMWCNTs/PC-12-4 to be used as electrodes materials in supercapacitor.

Key words: acid-functionalized multi-wall carbon nanotubes, porous carbon, electrochemical energy storage

CLC Number: