Ionic liquid coated single-walled carbon nanotube buckypaper as supercapacitor electrode

Effect of stacking structure of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on its performance as electrode of supercapacitor was investigated in the present work. Considering SWCNTs easily formed bundles due to strong van de Waals attraction between tubes, we proposed first dispersion of SWCNTs by ionic liquids (ILs) of 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMIMBF4), followed by fabrication of buckypaper by compression. The debundling effect of ILs on SWCNTs increased the interface between electrode and electrolyte, decreased electrical resistance, and, consequently, increased performance of the supercapacitor. Since ILs, used to disperse SWCNTs, also functioned as electrolyte in supercapacitor, our method is a simple way to prepare buckypaper electrode with high performance. (C) 2013 Chinese Society of Particuology and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.