A New Empirical Equation for Estimating Specific Surface Area of Supercapacitor Carbon Electrode from X-ray Diffraction

Abstract

The current trend of increasing research interest in supercapacitor is due to high demands for an energy storage device that can work in systems that require either low or high power-energy usage. In a supercapacitor using porous carbon electrodes, the energy storage mechanism involves the electrolyte ions in electrode pores and electronic charges in electrodes to form electric double layers at the electrode-electrolyte interface without undergoes any chemical reaction. The specific surface area of porous electrodes, which affect the performance of supercapacitor, have been widely investigated by many researchers using the nitrogen adsorption-desorption measurement. However, despite its simplicity, the X-ray diffraction method is rarely found being used to determine the specific surface area of porous electrodes. Therefore, in the present paper, we propose a new equation which expressed the specific surface area of electrodes as a function the electrode structural parameters obtained from the X-ray diffraction data, and duration of activation time employed during the electrode preparation. This equation is found to produce a satisfactory result and is expected to be beneficial for studying supercapacitor electrode materials