Carbon aerogels for electrochemical double layer capacitors

Carbon aerogels are prepared here via pyrolysis of resorcinol-formaldehyde aerogels. Their open porous and electrically conductive structure renders carbon aerogels suitable for the application in supercapacitors. Different types of electrodes can be derived from the sol-gel-precursors of carbon aerogels: Monolithic fibre-reinforced electrodes and polymer-carbon compounds. Both carbon fibre reinforced and polymeric bound aerogel electrodes based on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) have been investigated in this work with respect to their electrical conductivity, surface area and capacitive performance. The capacitance of both electrode types is above 65 F/cm(3) in aqueous electrolytes and this meets the demands of supercapacitor electrodes.