Carbon nanofiber supercapacitors with large areal capacitances

McDonough, James R.; Choi, Jang Wook; Yang, Yuan; La Mantia, Fabio; Zhang, Yuegang; Cui, Yi

Type

Article

Authors

McDonough, James R.
Choi, Jang Wook
Yang, Yuan
La Mantia, Fabio
Zhang, Yuegang
Cui, Yi

KAUST Grant Number

KUS-11-001-12

Date

2009-12-15

Online Publication Date

2009-12-15

Print Publication Date

2009-12-14

Permanent link to this record

http://hdl.handle.net/10754/597732

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Abstract

We develop supercapacitor (SC) devices with large per-area capacitances by utilizing three-dimensional (3D) porous substrates. Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) functioning as active SC electrodes are grown on 3D nickel foam. The 3D porous substrates facilitate a mass loading of active electrodes and per-area capacitance as large as 60 mg/ cm2 and 1.2 F/ cm2, respectively. We optimize SC performance by developing an annealing-free CNF growth process that minimizes undesirable nickel carbide formation. Superior per-area capacitances described here suggest that 3D porous substrates are useful in various energy storage devices in which per-area performance is critical. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.

Citation

McDonough JR, Choi JW, Yang Y, La Mantia F, Zhang Y, et al. (2009) Carbon nanofiber supercapacitors with large areal capacitances. Applied Physics Letters 95: 243109. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3273864.

Sponsors

Y. C. acknowledges support from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Investigator Award No. KUS-11-001-12). J.M. acknowledges funding support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship. CNF synthesis at the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.