Preparation of lactose-based attapulgite template carbon materials and their electrochemical performance

Abstract

In this study, natural attapulgite was purified by hydrochloric acid washing. Mesoporous carbon materials were prepared by atmospheric pressure impregnation at room temperature using pure attapulgite as a hard template and lactose as a carbon source. Relevant tests were used to determine the morphology and structure of the mesoporous carbon materials. Electrochemical tests were performed to evaluate the electrochemical performance of the materials. Results show that the AT-5M purified attapulgite possessed maximum specific surface area, and the as-prepared carbon materials exhibited partial fasciculus with specific surface area and total pore volume of 593 m2 g−1 and 1.021 cm3 g−1, respectively. The constant current charge/discharge tests showed that the as-prepared carbon materials demonstrated excellent energy storage capacity. When the current density was 625 mA g−1, the specific capacitance reached 180 F g−1. The materials showed quasi-rectangular features of typical cyclic voltammetry curves even at a high scan rate (200 mV s−1), indicating that they possessed excellent rate capacity. AC impedance tests showed that the materials were typical porous electrode materials with combination resistance of 0.525 Ω. The specific capacitance retention rate reached 95.32 % after 1000 constant current charge/discharge cycles, indicating that the materials had superior cyclic stability.