Elaborative Studies on Non-Porous Carbon Material for Super Capacitor Application

Abstract

This study demonstrates a simplistic and effectual approach to prepare non-porous carbon for which nitrogen is doped in poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) in presence of catalyst cobalt chloride (COCl2). Characterization of the prepared non-porous carbon is carried out using Raman, X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller. The calculated surface area of the prepared carbon is 15.78 m2 g−1. To compare the performance of prepared non-porous carbon with pure PVC as an electrode material for supercapacitor application, two EDLC cells are prepared. In both the cells, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate (ionic liquid) is used as an electrolyte and filter paper is used as a separator. Six times increment is found in the specific capacitance value of EDLC prepared using nitrogen-doped carbon (NC-CO) than prepared using pure PVC. The calculated specific capacitance values using low-frequency impedance spectroscopy are 62.28 and 7 F g−1, respectively, for NC-CO and pure PVC. © 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim