Development of glycerol based carbon having enhanced surface area and capacitance obtained by KOH induced thermochemical activation

The investigation describes surface modification of a glycerol-based carbon for enhanced capacitance. Glycerol was reacted with sulphuric acid, and the resulting carbon (GBC-120) was impregnated with known amount of KOH. The mixture was heated at 800 degrees C in N-2 atmosphere to obtain thermochemically activated carbon GBC(K). For comparison, GBC-120 was also heated in absence of KOH in N-2 atmosphere at 800 degrees C to prepare carbon GBC800. The infrared spectra display bands at 1625 and 1073 cm(-1), respectively due to C=C and SO3H functionality. BET analysis revealed that thermochemical activation resulted in evolution of pores in carbon structure with relatively large pore volume of 1.76 cm(3) g(-1) and surface area of 1653 m(2) g(-1) for GBC(K) in comparison to very low pore volume (0.06 & 0.08 cm(3) g(-1)) and surface area (21 & 425 m(2) g(-1)) for samples GBC-120 and GBC-800 respectively. The activated carbon GBC(K) showed significantly higher specific capacitance of 219 mF cm(-2) as compared to commercial activated carbon and CNT.

Automated summary

The investigation focused on surface modification of glycerol-based carbon to enhance its capacitance. Thermochemical activation resulted in the evolution of pores in the carbon structure, leading to higher pore volume and surface area compared to other samples. The activated carbon showed significantly higher specific capacitance than commercial activated carbon and CNT.