Synthesis and Electrochemical Performance of Mesoporous Carbon Foams by Microemulsion Method

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrated the preparation and electrochemical performance of mesoporous carbon foams as electrode materials for ultracapacitors. By using n-octane as oil phase, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and butanol as emulsifiers, resorcinol and formaldehyde dissolved in water as the aqueous phase, an O/W microemulsion system was obtained. Mesoporous carbon foams (MCFs) were prepared by the polymerization of the O/W microemulsion, followed by drying and carbonization and subsequently activation at 1273 K by KOH under nitrogen atmosphere. The mesoporous carbon foams were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analyzer. The results show that MCFs have specific surface area of 666.7 m2/g, total pore volume of 0.36 cm3/g and the most probable pore size of 4 nm. The electrochemical properties of the resultant mesoporous carbon foams have been investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge with a three-electrode system in electrolyte of 6 mol/L KOH solution. The CV curves show quite rectangular shape under the scan rate of 5-20 mV/s, suggesting a typical nonfaradic adsorption/desorption reaction. The mesoporous carbon foams possess linear galvanostatic discharge curves under the current densities of 10-50 mA/cm2 and corresponding specific capacitance values are 132.6-172.1 F/g. Thus the MCFs have good electrochemical performance and they provide an important candidate for electrode materials used in ultracapacitors.