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Preparation of activated carbon from cotton stalk and its application in supercapacitor

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry volume 17, pages1005–1012(2013)Cite this article

Abstract

High specific capacitance and low cost are the critical requirements for a practical supercapacitor. In this paper, a new activated carbon with high specific capacitance and low cost was prepared, employing cotton stalk as the raw material, by using the phosphoric acid (H3PO4) chemical activation method. The optimized conditions were as follows: the cotton stalk and activating agent with a mass ratio of 1:4 at an activation temperature of 800 °C for 2 h. The samples were characterized by nitrogen adsorption isotherms at 77 K. The specific surface area and pore volume of activated carbon were calculated by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and t-plot methods. With these experimental conditions, an activated carbon with a BET surface area of 1,481 cm2 g−1 and micropore volume of 0.0377 cm3 g−1 was obtained. The capacitance of the prepared activated carbon was as high as 114 F g−1.The results indicate that cotton stalk can produce activated carbon electrode materials with low cost and high performance for electric double-layer capacitor.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for support from Advanced Carbon Materials Research Laboratory, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology. This work was supported by the “West Light” Talents Cultivation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XBBS200919), the Main Direction Program of the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KGCX2-YW-359), and the science and technology projects of Urumqi (No. K111410005).

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Affiliations

  1. Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Electronic Information Materials and Devices, Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, Xinjiang, 830011, China
    • Mingde Chen
    • , Xueya Kang
    • , Tuerdi Wumaier
    • , Junqing Dou
    • , Bo Gao
    • , Ying Han
    • , Guoqing Xu
    • , Zhiqiang Liu
    •  & Lu Zhang
  2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
    • Mingde Chen
    • , Junqing Dou
    • , Zhiqiang Liu
    •  & Lu Zhang
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  1. Mingde Chen
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Correspondence to Xueya Kang.

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Chen, M., Kang, X., Wumaier, T. et al. Preparation of activated carbon from cotton stalk and its application in supercapacitor. J Solid State Electrochem 17, 1005–1012 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-012-1946-6

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Keywords

  • Supercapacitor
  • Activated carbon
  • Cotton stalk
  • Specific area
  • H3PO4 activation