Modification and Supercapacitive Performance Enhancement of Calcium Carbide-Derived Carbon Prepared by a Green Solvent-Free Mechanochemical Route

Abstract

A solvent-free mechanochemical method is a green and environmentally friendly preparation technology for the preparation of calcium carbide-derived porous carbon (CCDPC). Although CCDPC can be widely used in the fields of energy storage, gas separation, catalysis, and so on, the performance of CCDPC as an electrode material of supercapacitors still needs to be further improved. Based on the in situ chemical oxidation polymerization method, in this paper, polyaniline (PANI) is successfully introduced into CCDPC and covered on the surface and skeleton of CCDPC. It has been found that the as-prepared CCDPC/PANI composite electrode displays a high specific capacitance of 362 F g–1 at 0.5 A g–1, which is approximately 4 times higher than that of the pure CCDPC electrode. When assembling a symmetric supercapacitor by a CCDPC/PANI composite with a wide voltage window of 0–1.1 V, the supercapacitor delivers a higher energy density than CCDPC and reveals excellent capacitance retention of 77% after 10,000 cycles. Therefore, the preparation technology of the CCDPC/PANI composite provides significative exploration for the enhancement of electrochemical performance of high-performance supercapacitors and predicts a promising application prospect in the field of energy storage.