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Comparative study of HNO3 activation effect on porous carbons having different porous characteristics

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Abstract

Two carbide-derived carbons (CDCs) were synthesized by chlorination from TiC at 600 and 1000 °C. These CDCs were treated by HNO3 solution and evaluated as supercapacitor electrode materials in an alkaline electrolyte. It is found that the structure in CDC synthesized at 600 °C is disordered carbon with micropores, whereas for the CDC synthesized at 1000 °C, the structure in it is mainly well-ordered graphitic structure with micro- and meso-pores. Due to the big difference of these two CDCs, HNO3 activation plays the different effects in structure and consequently the specific capacitance. CDC synthesized at 600 °C is easier to be activated with the same HNO3 concentration and the increase of specific capacitance with HNO3 concentration mainly caused by pseudocapacitance. For CDC synthesized at 1000 °C, HNO3 activation improves the wettability of it and the increased accessible surface area causes considerable increase in specific capacitance.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support of this work by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 50975247), Hebei Natural Science Foundation (No. E2014203204), and the project of science and technology plan of Hebei province (No. 12211102) are acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, Hebei, China

    Chao Wu, Pengtao Yan, Ruijun Zhang, Jianglong Jin, Xuesha Zhang & Huimin Kang

  2. North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, 063009, Hebei, China

    Chao Wu

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  1. Chao Wu
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  2. Pengtao Yan
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Correspondence to Ruijun Zhang.

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Wu, C., Yan, P., Zhang, R. et al. Comparative study of HNO3 activation effect on porous carbons having different porous characteristics. J Appl Electrochem 45, 849–856 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-015-0840-1

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