5945.2:
Synthesis of supported, nanostructured, high porosity carbon as electrode material
Abstract
The energy density in many storage devices, e.g. electrochemical double layer capacitors and Li-ion batteries, is limited because of a large amount of inactive material in the electrodes. Today electrodes have a thickness of at least 50 m in order to make the manufacturing of the devices possible. A large quantity (99%) of the material remains inactive in the device. The aim of this project is to analyze the limiting factors in currently known carbon materials and to synthesize carbon films or deposit carbon structures pyrolysed from natural materials, with a high gravimetric density, a large specific surface area and a well controlled porosity on a metallic substrate. The carbon film will increase the surface area of the metallic substrate by many orders of magnitude and therefore lead to an electrode material with excellent properties for high power applications.