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Effect of sulfate in mineral precursor on capacitance behavior of prepared activated carbon

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Abstract

Analog sulfur-containing precursors (ASCPs) were employed to prepare activated carbon (AC) for supercapacitor by potassium hydroxide (KOH) chemical activation. The influence of sulfate, K2SO4, FeSO4, and CaSO4 on pore structure of resultant AC and its capacitance performance was investigated extensively. The results indicate that FeSO4 and K2SO4 in ASCPs can be involved deeply in activation reaction. K2SO4 can play a synergistic activation role in increasing porosity and capacitance performance, while FeSO4 can react with and consume a certain amount of KOH, thus decreasing the performance of AC. Compared with K2SO4 and FeSO4, CaSO4 in ASCPs has low reactivity; namely, only a small part of CaSO4 was involved in activation reaction, while most of it was transformed into CaCO3 residued in AC during washing process. Due to coexistence of CaCO3 with AC, the porosity and capacitance performance of AC were decreased obviously. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that in comparison with K+ and Ca2+, Fe2+ in ASCPs is more beneficial for transformation of inorganic sulfate into organic thioether in AC.

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Abbreviations

AC:

Activated carbon

UWAC:

Unwashed AC

ASCPs:

Analogous sulfur-containing precursors

BET:

Brunauer-Emmett-Teller

BJH:

Barrett-Joyner-Halenda

DBT:

Dibenzothiophene

PC:

Petroleum coke

XANES:

X-ray adsorption near-edge structure spectroscopy

SEM:

Scanning electron microscopy

XRD:

X-ray diffraction

XPS:

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

EDS:

Energy-dispersive spectrometer

CV:

Cyclic voltammetry

GCD:

Galvanostatic charge-discharge

EIS:

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21106124 and No. 21375116) and Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (2014M551668). The related measure and analysis instrument for this work was supported by the Testing Center of Yangzhou University. The S K-edge XANES measurement was carried out at the Canadian Light Source (CLS). We thank the CLS staff for the technical support. The CLS is financially supported by NSERC Canada, CIHR, NRC, and the University of Saskatchewan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225002, People’s Republic of China

    Huaihao Zhang, Chi Ma, Bin Hu, Jing Zhao & Tianyi Wang

  2. Canadian Light Source, 44 Innovation Boulevard S7N 2V3, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Yongfeng Hu & Aimee Maclennan

  3. College of Chemistry and Environment Protection Engineering, Southwest University for Nationalities, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China

    Changjing Cheng

Authors
  1. Huaihao Zhang
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  2. Chi Ma
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  3. Yongfeng Hu
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  5. Bin Hu
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Correspondence to Huaihao Zhang or Changjing Cheng.

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Zhang, H., Ma, C., Hu, Y. et al. Effect of sulfate in mineral precursor on capacitance behavior of prepared activated carbon. J Solid State Electrochem 20, 3437–3445 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-016-3317-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-016-3317-1

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