电化学双电层电容器用新型炭材料及其应用前景

Novel Carbon Materials for Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitors and Their Applications

活性炭是目前使用最为广泛的一种电化学双电层电容器(EDLC)的电极材料,但其固有的缺点制约了EDLC性能的进一步提高。用新型高性能炭电极材料可使EDLC比能量和比功率性能进一步提高。这些新型炭材料包括基于石墨层状结构的纳米门炭,基于碳纳米管阵列结构的毛皮炭,通过高温置换反应制备的骨架炭以及电极可整体成型的纳米孔玻态炭。本文介绍了这些炭材料的电化学特性及其在电化学双电层电容器中的应用,指出用这4种新型炭材料制备EDLC的比能量或比功率性能远高于目前活性炭基EDLC,具有良好的应用前景。

Electrochemical double layer capacitors （EDLC） have been expected as a secondary electric power supplier for the automobiles with hybrid engine or fuel cell motors because of their rapid charging/discharging. Activated carbons are the electrode materials used most frequently for electrode of EDLC. But activated carbon presents several intrinsic disadvantages that result in limited energy and power density as well as rated voltage. Researchers have demonstrated that improved performance of EDLC can be achieved based on other novel carbon materials. These alternatives include graphite based nanogate carbon, carbon nanotube array based carbon nanotube fur, skeleton carbon and nanoporous glassy carbon. Their characteristics, electrochemical properties and applications in EDLC are introduced in this paper. EDLCs assembled with these four novel carbon materials obtain higher specific power or specific energy than activated carbons based EDLCs, and have nice application prospects.