Preparation of Nano-Porous Activated Carbon Aerogel Using a Single-Step Activation Method for Use as High-Power EDLC Electrode in Organic Electrolyte

Carbon aerogel was chemically activated with KOH using two different activation methods (conventional activation method and single-step activation method) to yield the nano-porous activated carbon aerogel. Both nano-porous activated carbon aerogels exhibited a better capacitive behavior than carbon aerogel in organic electrolyte. However, a drastic decrease in the specific capacitance with increasing current density was observed in the ACA_C (activated carbon aerogel prepared by a conventional activation method), which is a general tendency of carbon electrode for EDLC in organic electrolyte. Interestingly, the specific capacitance of ACA_S electrode (activated carbon aerogel prepared by a single-step activation method) decreased slowly with increasing current density and its CV curve maintained a rectangular shape well even at a high scan rate of 500 mV/s. The enhanced electrochemical performance of ACA_S at a high current density was attributed to its low ionic resistance caused by the well-developed pore structure with appropriate pore size for easy moving of organic electrolyte ion. Therefore, it can be concluded that single-step activation method could be one of the efficient methods for preparation of nano-porous activated carbon aerogel electrode for high-power EDLC in organic electrolyte.