Straightforward Solution Polymerization Synthesis of Porous Carbon@Gold Nanoparticles Electrode for High-Performance Supercapacitor

Abstract

Porous carbon materials have proven to be an excellent candidate electrode material for supercapacitor applications; however, the energy density is relatively in a low level. In this work, we introduce gold nanoparticles into the precursor of polyacrylonitrile to prepare composite materials of gold nanoparticles and porous carbon using a facile method to enhance the energy density of this carbon based supercapacitor device. The samples are quantitatively analyzed using transmission electron microscope, field emission scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in order to unveil the structure and morphological features. Accordingly, the results have confirmed the porous structure, including numerous micro/mesoporous, with relatively high specific surface area at 3, 305 m2/g. On the electrochemical analysis aspect, the composite materials demonstrated a high specific capacitance of 421.4 F/g at the current density of 0.5 A/g, which is much higher than that of the pristine carbon (without introducing gold nanoparticles), 190 F/g, indicating the optimized nature of the composite materials. Moreover, the symmetrical supercapacitor is assembled with composite electrode, and meshed with 6 M KOH aqueous solution as an electrolyte. Interestingly, a high specific energy of 10.4 Wh/kg is obtained at specific power of 124.9 W/kg. According to the findings, the obtained composite electrode material of gold nanoparticles and porous carbon is a highly promising electrode material for supercapacitors or other energy storage devices.