Effect of N-doping-derived solvent adsorption on electrochemical double layer structure and performance of porous carbon

N-doped porous carbon has been extensively investigated for broad electrochemical applications.The performance is significantly impacted by the electrochemical double layer(EDL),which is material dependent and hard to characterize.Limited understanding of doping-derived EDL structure hinders insight into the structure-performance relations and the rational design of high-performance materials.Thus,we analyzed the mass and chemical composition variation of EDL within electrochemical operation by electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance,in-situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,and time-offlight secondary ion mass spectrometry.We found that N-doping triggers specifically adsorbed propylene carbonate solvent in the inner Helmholtz plane(IHP),which prevents ion rearrangement and enhances the migration of cations.However,this specific adsorption accelerated solvent decomposition,rendering rapid performance degradation in practical devices.This work reveals that the surface chemistry of electrodes can cause specific adsorption of solvents and change the EDL structure,which complements the classical EDL theory and provide guidance for practical applications.

Fabrication and Electrochemical Properties of Carbon Nanotube-based Composite Electrodes for Electrochemical Capacitor Applications

1 Results Electrochemical capacitors (ECs) are expected to be used in hybrid electric vehicles in combination with batteries or fuel cells because of their higher power density than batteries. ECs using electrical double layer capacitance of carbon based materials and pseudocapacitance of transition metal oxides are called electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLC) and supercapacitors (or pseudocapacitor), respectively. Transition metal oxides are considered the best candidates for high energy dens...

Transformation of Supercapacitive Charge Storage Behaviour in a Multi elemental Spinel CuMn_(2)O_(4) Nanofibers with Alkaline and Neutral Electrolytes

Electrode material has been cited as one of the most important determining factors in classifying an energy storage system’s charge storage mechanism,i.e.,as battery-type or supercapacitive-type.In this paper,we show that along with the electrode material,the electrolyte also plays a role in determining the charge storage behaviour of the system.For the purpose of our research,we chose multi-elemental spinal type CuMn_(2)O_(4) metal oxide nanofibers to prove the hypothesis.The material is synthesized as nanofibers of diameter~120 to 150 nm in large scales by a pilot scale electrospinning set up.It was then tested in three different electrolytes(1 M KOH,1 M Na_(2)SO_(4) and 1 M Li_(2)SO_(4)),two of which are neutral and the third is alkaline(KOH).The cyclic voltammograms and the galvanostatic charge-discharge of the electrode material in a three-electrode sys-tem measurement showed that it exhibit different charge storage mechanism in different electrolyte solutions.For the neutral electrolytes,a capacitive behaviour was observed whereas a battery-type behaviour was seen for the alkaline electrolyte.This leads us to conclude that the charge storage mechanism,along with the active material,also depends on the electrolyte used.