Hydrophilic Carbon Cloth (Chemically Activated) as an Electrode Material For Energy Storage Device
Manu Saji Samuel, Chirag Mevada, Mausumi Mukhopadhyay
Abstract
In this work, hydrophobic carbon cloth (HCC) was chemically activated by the facile oxidation method using a mixture of concentrated acid (H 2 SO 4 :HNO 3 ) followed by ammonium hydroxide (NH 4 OH) treatment to make it a suitable electrode/current collector for energy storage device. It was found that the treated carbon cloth (TCC) turned hydrophilic by this treatment and a decrease in contact angle from 145.46 ± 0.28° to 72.93 ± 1.32° was observed. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the functionalization of TCC with C = O, O–H functional group. Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) results showed the enhancement of surface area in TCC by 18 times. Field emission gun-scanning electron microscopy (FEG-SEM) and scanning probe microscope (SPM) analysis confirmed surface modification in TCC. The electrochemical properties of TCC were investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV), constant current charge–discharge (CCCD) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The areal capacitance of the TCC measured by CCCD was 908 mF cm −2 at 1.5 mA cm −2 in 1 M H 2 SO 4 aqueous electrolyte. Specific capacitance retention rate was 95.02% after 5000 cycles at current density of 10 mA cm −2 , and EIS study of TCC showed the charge-transfer resistance of 0.34 Ω.