SUNDAY, 22 MAY 2011
A group at the University of Texas in Austin were trying to make activated carbon with a standard method involving potassium hydroxide. Biomass is the usual carbon source for this process in industry, but the Austin group used graphitic carbon instead, with surprising results. Rather than produce a simple structure full of holes, they instead found that dilute amounts of the potassium hydroxide had restructured the carbon into a three-dimensional network with a very high surface area [1].Dr Rodney Ruoff and his colleagues tested their carbon material for use as a supercapacitor and found that it performed surprisingly well, particularly with ionic liquid electrolytes which function over a much larger voltage range. These properties mean that capacitors made from this new carbon material could charge the same amount of energy much faster than a standard lead-acid battery. The method of making these porous carbon materials is also cost-effective and would be straightforward to commercialise, and has the additional potential to be modified to form other three-dimensional graphene-based structures [2].
Written by Stephanie Boardman
References:
- Zhu, Y., Murali, S., Stoller, M.D., Ganesh, K.J., Cai, W., Ferreira, P.J., Pirkle, A., Wallace, A.M., Cychosz, K.A., Thommes, M., Su, D., Stach, E.A. & Ruoff, R.S. 2011. Carbon-based supercapacitors produced by activation of graphene. Science 2011, DOI: 10.1126/science.1200770
- http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2011/May/13051102.asp
![](mailto:?subject=Serendipitous supercapacitors&body=https://bluesci.uk/posts/serendipitous-supercapacitors <a href="https://bluesci.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/carbon.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-3554" title="From: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graphene_xyz.jpg?uselang=en-gb" src="https://bluesci.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/carbon-300x245.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="245" /></a>A group at the University of Texas in Austin were trying to make activated carbon with a standard method involving potassium hydroxide. Biomass is the usual carbon source for this process in industry, but the Austin group used graphitic carbon instead, with surprising results. Rather than produce a simple structure full of holes, they instead found that dilute amounts of the potassium hydroxide had restructured the carbon into a three-dimensional network with a very high surface area <a href='https://www.google.com/search?q=Zhu, Y., Murali, S., Stoller, M.D., Ganesh, K.J., Cai, W., Ferreira, P.J., Pirkle, A., Wallace, A.M., Cychosz, K.A., Thommes, M., Su, D., Stach, E.A. &amp; Ruoff, R.S. 2011.<em> </em>Carbon-based supercapacitors produced by activation of graphene.<em> Science</em> 2011, DOI: 10.1126/science.1200770' title='Zhu, Y., Murali, S., Stoller, M.D., Ganesh, K.J., Cai, W., Ferreira, P.J., Pirkle, A., Wallace, A.M., Cychosz, K.A., Thommes, M., Su, D., Stach, E.A. & Ruoff, R.S. 2011.<em> </em>Carbon-based supercapacitors produced by activation of graphene.<em> Science</em> 2011, DOI: 10.1126/science.1200770' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'><sup>[1]</sup></a>.<br><br>Dr Rodney Ruoff and his colleagues tested their carbon material for use as a supercapacitor and found that it performed surprisingly well, particularly with ionic liquid electrolytes which function over a much larger voltage range. These properties mean that capacitors made from this new carbon material could charge the same amount of energy much faster than a standard lead-acid battery. The method of making these porous carbon materials is also cost-effective and would be straightforward to commercialise, and has the additional potential to be modified to form other three-dimensional graphene-based structures <a href="http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2011/May/13051102.asp" title='http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2011/May/13051102.asp' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'><sup>[2]</sup></a>.<br><br>Written by Stephanie Boardman<p><hr></p><h3>References:</h3><ol><li><a href='https://www.google.com/search?q=Zhu, Y., Murali, S., Stoller, M.D., Ganesh, K.J., Cai, W., Ferreira, P.J., Pirkle, A., Wallace, A.M., Cychosz, K.A., Thommes, M., Su, D., Stach, E.A. &amp; Ruoff, R.S. 2011.<em> </em>Carbon-based supercapacitors produced by activation of graphene.<em> Science</em> 2011, DOI: 10.1126/science.1200770' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'>Zhu, Y., Murali, S., Stoller, M.D., Ganesh, K.J., Cai, W., Ferreira, P.J., Pirkle, A., Wallace, A.M., Cychosz, K.A., Thommes, M., Su, D., Stach, E.A. & Ruoff, R.S. 2011.<em> </em>Carbon-based supercapacitors produced by activation of graphene.<em> Science</em> 2011, DOI: 10.1126/science.1200770</a></li><li><a href="http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2011/May/13051102.asp" target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'>http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2011/May/13051102.asp</a></li></ol>){kind=link}