Copper-doped mesoporous activated carbons as electrode material for electrochemical capacitors

Cu-doped activated carbon composites were prepared from phenolic resins by a doping method. The structure and specific capacitance of Cu-doped activated carbon composites were investigated using nitrogen gas adsorption and constant current cycling (CCC) methods. The pore size distributions of activated carbon-Cu series indicated that the doped Cu had no drastic effect on the structure of ACs. The percentage of copper in the composite electrode was less than 1 wt. %. It was found that the AC-Cu series had higher capacitance than that of activated carbons; even though their BET surface area was not larger than that of the AC ones. The Cu-doped activated carbon composite prepared by activating at 800 degrees C for 2 h had high capacitance (120 F g(-1)) which was more than 25% than that of the ACs. XRD and TEM showed that copper existed in the form of oxidation state and the diameter of particles was under 100 nm.