Preparation of high density activated carbon by mechanical compression of precursors for compact capacitive energy storage

Abstract

Activated carbons are widely used as the electrode material for supercapacitors owing to their large surface area, moderate conductivity, and outstanding electrochemical stability. However, large-surface-area activated carbons usually show low density and poor volumetric energy storage performance, which is difficult to meet the development of devices miniaturization. Mechanical compression is a simple and effective method to improve the density of the activated carbons. However, most of the studies focus on mechanical compression of the as-prepared porous carbon materials. Preparation of high-density activated carbons by mechanical compression of the carbon precursors has been proposed. But the surface area and porous structure evolution, and the possible mechanism have rarely investigated. Herein, we propose a universal method to improve the density of the activated carbons by mechanical compression of the precursors before activation. The influence of mechanical compression on the surface area, porous structure, and capacitive energy storage performance of the activated carbons prepared by two typical methods, outside-in activation (carbon powder/KOH mixture) and homogeneous ion activation (pyrolysis of potassium-containing salts), are studied. Mechanical compression of the precursors can generally improve the activation reaction efficiency, as well as the density and volumetric capacitive performance of the activated carbons. However, the surface area and porous structure evolution mainly depend on the carbon precursor and pore-forming process. For outside-in activation, the surface area and porosity of the activated carbons show a first increasing and then decreasing trend with the increase of mechanical pressure. This is because mechanical compression enhances the contact between the carbon precursors and activator through eliminating the voids between particles, significantly improves the activation efficiency. For homogeneous ion activation, the surface area and porosity of activated carbons show a trend of decreasing first and then increasing. The reason is deduced as compressed precursors inhibit the rapid release of active gas molecules (H₂O, CO₂ etc.) produced during pyrolysis. These gas molecules further participate in the activation etching reaction and promote the activation efficiency. The optimized sample shows high gravimetric and volumetric capacitances of 316 F g⁻¹/291 F cm⁻³ and 131 F g⁻¹/92 F cm⁻³ at 1 A g⁻¹ in aqueous and organic electrolytes, respectively. This work provides a simple way for design and preparation of activated carbons with large surface area and high density.