Improvement in electrochemical capacitance of activated carbon from scrap tires by nitric acid treatment

Abstract

Activated carbon (AC) obtained from the industrial pyrolytic tire char is treated by concentrated nitric acid (AC-HNO₃) and then used as the electrode material for supercapacitors. Surface properties and electrochemical capacitances of AC and AC-HNO₃ are studied. It is found that the morphology and the porous texture for AC and AC-HNO₃ have little difference, while the oxygen content increases and functional groups change after the acid treatment. Electrochemical results demonstrate that the AC-HNO₃ electrode displays higher specific capacitance, better stability and cycling performance, and lower equivalent series resistance, indicating that AC obtained from the industrial pyrolytic tire char treated by concentrated nitric acid is applicable for supercapacitors.

Keywords

pyrolytic tire char / activated carbon (AC) / nitric acid treatment / electrochemical capacitance / supercapacitor

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Technologies R & D Program of China (Grant No. 2006BAC02A12), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21003077), the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (Grant No. 08JCZDJC21400) and MOE (IRT13R30).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg