Pore Structure and Electrochemical Properties of Carbon Aerogels as an EDLC-Electrode with Different Preparation Conditions

Abstract

Various carbon aerogels (CAs) were prepared from polymerization of resorcinol and formaldehyde and applied as the electrode materials of an electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) with the aim of controlling the textural and electrochemical properties of CAs by the type of base catalyst and the ratio of resorcinol to catalyst (R/C). The CAs from NaHCO3 and KHCO3 with H+ ions had higher specific surface areas but exhibited lower electrochemical properties than those from K2CO3 and Na2CO3, which had more uniform pore size distributions. The electrochemical properties of Na2CO3 were superior to those of K2CO3 probably because the polarizing power of Na+ ions was higher than K+ ions. With an increasing R/C ratio, the pore sizes of CA showed a tendency to increase but the uniformity of the pore size distribution got worse. For the four base catalysts, the highest electrochemical property was obtained at the R/C ratio of 500.