Model carbon materials derived from tannin to assess the importance of pore connectivity in supercapacitors

J. Castro-Gutiérrez, N. Díez, M. Sevilla, M.T. Izquierdo, A. Celzard and V. Fierro

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2021, vol. 151, issue C

Abstract: A surfactant-water-assisted mechanochemical mesostructuration method is used to produce model carbon materials with a disordered or ordered mesoporous structure (DMCs or OMCs, respectively) from a sustainable precursor, mimosa tannin. These model materials, differing only in their mesoporous structure, allow assessing the importance of the connectivity of the micro-mesopore network on the electrochemical performance of the resultant supercapacitors (SCs). Connectivity is studied through the scanning of hysteresis loops from nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms and, contrary to what it is suggested in the literature, order is not always beneficial for the performance of SCs. A thorough review of the open literature and comparison with our electrodes led us to conclude that CO2-activated DMCs and OMCs are among the best materials reported so far, as they exhibit excellent SC behavior, high-rate capability, and long-term stability in aqueous and organic electrolytes. It is showed that ordered mesopores improve the diffusion of the small-size ions of the aqueous electrolyte and hence favor a better performance at high charging rates, resulting in a 12% higher capacitance retention at 80 A g−1 when compared to that obtained with the disordered materials. However, the more interconnected porosity of the disordered materials allows better diffusion of large-size ions, thus improving the electrochemical performance in the organic electrolyte by 15% at 40 A g−1.

Keywords: Mesoporous carbons; Pore connectivity; CO2 activation; Hysteresis scanning; Supercapacitors; Tannin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111600

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