Facile preparation of composite electrodes for supercapacitors by CNT entrapment into carbon matrix derived from pitch at a softening point

Joah Han, Ji Su Chae, Jae Chul Kim, Kwang Chul Roh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

We propose a facile route to fabricate carbon nanotube-activated carbon composite electrodes for supercapacitor applications. The crux of our approach lies in the use of softened pitch that becomes viscous at 110 °C and combines effortlessly with multi-walled carbon nanotubes, allowing a one-pot chemical activation at 900 °C. Meso/macroscale pores created by a bundle of the nanotubes can be infiltrated effectively by the softened pitch, increasing the apparent tap density with microporosity. This composite electrode leverages the high electron conductivity of percolated multi-walled carbon nanotubes and the large surface area of activated carbon, leading to high gravimetric (11.9 Wh/kg) and volumetric energy densities (10.4 Wh/L) at 1 mA/cm2. Our method substantially simplifies the preparation of carbon nanotube-activated carbon composite materials and can be an excellent strategy to obtain practical energy storage properties at a reduced processing cost.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)402-407
Number of pages6
JournalCarbon
Volume163
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Aug 2020

Keywords

  • CNT composite
  • Carbon nanotubes
  • Entrapped CNT
  • Pitch derived activated carbon
  • Porous graphitic activated carbons
  • Supercapacitors

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