Surface Modified Carbon Cloth via Nitrogen Plasma for Supercapacitor Applications

Carbon cloth (CC) is a basic component for various electrochemical applications including supercapacitors, batteries, and catalysts. However, the hydrophobic nature and poor compatibility of CC with electrolyte ions remain an issue. In the present work, we developed a simple yet effective nitrogen plasma approach to induce nanostructuring over the CC, thereby significantly increasing the wettability and surface area of the CC, which both favor robust electrochemical reactions. In addition to this, nitrogen doping on the surface of the CC allowed more electroactive species for electrochemical reactions. Benefiting from these integrated merits, the plasma-treated nitrogen-doped CC (NCC) shows excellent supercapacitive features including an areal capacitance of 741 mF/cm(2), which is much higher than that of the bare CC. Moreover, the NCC shows excellent cycling stability over 5000 charge-discharge cycles without losing its initial capacitance. The presented approach provides an innovative route to design and develop highly efficient carbon-based electrodes for supercapacitor applications. (C) The Author(s) 2018. Published by ECS.