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Document Type
Thesis - University Access Only
Award Date
2015
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department / School
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
First Advisor
Qi Hau Fan
Second Advisor
David Galiqeau
Abstract
The most frequently used carbon material for supercapacitors are graphene, carbon nanotubes and activated carbon. Due to their high cost, low cost biochar is being seen as the potential replacement. The fabrication of biochar supercapacitors is usually done by hydraulic press method which is a lengthy process. Although electrophoretic deposition is common for carbon nanotubes and graphene, there are no reports on stable biochar supercapacitors using this method. There is a need for a fast and efficient activated biochar deposition technique for supercapacitor electrodes and to improve the specific capacitance of commercially-available chemically-activated biochar. The objectives of this work were to develop electrophoretic deposition technique for activated biochar and to increase its surface area by plasma treatment. Electrophoretic deposition is used to deposit charged particles in a liquid medium onto an electrode by an electric field while plasma treatment uses reactive ions to create pores on a carbon surface. In this work, activated coconut biochar was deposited by electrophoretic deposition and treated with methane and oxygen plasmas. Ethyl cellulose as a binder provided good adhesion of the biochar to metal substrates. Electrophoretic deposition produced higher specific capacitance, 135 F g-1 versus 100 F g-1 by hydraulic press method. Plasma treatment increased the capacitance further to 150 F g-1. This is the first report of the electrophoretic xiii deposition of biochar for supercapacitor electrodes and methane and oxygen plasma treatment of coconut biochar.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Supercapacitors
Electrophoretic deposition
Biochar
Electrodes, Carbon
Description
Includes bibliographical references (pages 87-90)
Format
application/pdf
Number of Pages
103
Publisher
South Dakota State University
Recommended Citation
Amatya, Ishop, "Electrophoretic Deposition of Activated Biocarbon for Supercapacitors" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1754.
https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/1754
Rights Statement
