Preliminary Study Of Mesoporous Carbon As Electrode Material For Supercapacitors By Block Copolymer Carbonization

The latest development in both theoretical and applicational research of theelectrode materials for supercapacitor devices have been reviewed in this thesis, andthe difficulties which exist in research of supercapacitor electrode material wereanalyzed. Mesoporous carbon has been widely applied in supercapacitor devices dueto its high specific surface area and microporousity. In this thesis, carbon electrodematerials were synthesized by a new method named reversible addition fragmentationchain transfer polymerization (RAFT). The microstructures and morphologies ofsynthesized electrode materials were investigated by XRD, SEM and BETmeasurements. The electrochemical properties of these electrode materials wereevaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge. The maincontent of this thesis include two aspects:First, a new RAFT reagent named CTA was synthesized. Crossing linkingpolystyrene was synthesized by RAFT polymerization. After high temperaturecarbonization, mesoporous carbon was prepared. Meanwhile, the relations betweenthe microstructures and the electrochemical properties of electrode material werestudied.Second, the acrylic acid-styrene block copolymer was synthesized by RAFTpolymerization. Furthermore, the porous carbon electrode materials were prepared.TEM photos show this material has microstructure. Because the number of holes islimited, electrolyte can not transport freely in these microstructure. Meanwhile,wetting quality is so poor that specific capacitance only80Fg-1. However, aftermodification by nitric acid, its wettability was highly enhanced, so the highest specificcapacitance of206Fg-1was reached. In this experiment, the effect of polymerizationand carbonized condition, ratio of monomer, the weight of the RAFT reagent, andmodification condition on the electrochemical properties were studied.