TY  - JOUR
T1  - Highly stable 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone electrodes for supercapacitors
AU  - Hamenu, Louis
AU  - Madzvamuse, Alfred
AU  - Mohammed, Latifatu
AU  - Hu, Mengyang
AU  - Park, Jongwook
AU  - Ryou, Myung-Hyun
AU  - Lee, Yong Min
AU  - Ko, Jang Myoun
JO  - Synthetic Metals
VL  - 231
SP  - 25
EP  - 33
PY  - 2017
DA  - 2017/09/01/
SN  - 0379-6779
DO  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.synthmet.2017.06.006
UR  - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379677917301649
KW  - Supercapacitors
KW  - 2,3,5,6-Tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone
KW  - Carbon electrode
KW  - Pseudocapacitance
AB  - Carbon materials have enjoyed wide applications in supercapacitors because of their high surface area which guarantees a high power output through the formation of an electric double layer (EDL). However the energy stored by this EDL mechanism is often insufficient and as such there is the need to upgrade them for higher energy applications. Quinone materials are attracting interest because of their pseudocapacitance contributions which help to boost the energy density of supercapacitors. In this study, composite supercapacitor electrodes are prepared by mechanically mixing 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone (TCBQ) and activated carbon. An investigation of 5% w/w and 10% w/w of this quinolic material as a pseudocapacitance material to activated carbon in 1M HCl aqueous electrolyte delivers a specific capacitance of 236Fg−1 and 240Fg−1 comparable to 190Fg−1 of just activated carbon over a potential range of −0.3V–0.9V vs Ag+/Ag. Contrary to what is commonly observed, this material is highly insoluble in the electrolyte medium and remains stable with cycling, recovering 99.57% (for 10% w/w addition) and 99.13% (for 5% w/w addition) of its initial capacitance after cycling at 500mVs−1 scan rate. The findings in this report potentially provides a cheaper yet efficient route to boost the energy density of activated carbon using TCBQ for high energy supercapacitor applications.
ER  -