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Author

Yan XuFollow

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Campus Access Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Advisor 1

Yun Hang Hu

Committee Member 1

Stephen A. Hackney

Committee Member 2

Shiyue Fang

Abstract

It is important to modify the surface and pore structure of carbon materials for their applications in supercapacitors. In this work, microwave-based heating was demonstrated as an efficient post-treatment approach to tune the structure of activated carbon (AC), which is much better than conventional heating treatment. First, conventional heating was evaluated for the modification of AC. Namely, AC with KOH was treated at 850°C in 30 Psi Ar atmosphere for 2 hours show an increased performance for electrochemical double-layer capacitor (EDLC). The capacity increased by 16.3% (from 68.6 F/g to 79.7 F/g) at current density of 0.2 A/g in 2 M KOH aqueous solution.

Second, a microwave-based heating was employed for the post treatment for AC. After AC with KOH had been treated by microwave only for 8 minutes, its symmetrical double-layer capacity increases by 57.3% (from 68.6 F/g to 107.9 F/g) at current density of 0.2 A/g in 2 M KOH aqueous solution. Moreover, even after 4000 galvanostatic charge/discharge at current density of 5 A/g, the excellent capacity retention of 96% was obtained.

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