Electrochemical studies of RuO2/activated carbon composite electrode materials for supercapacitor applications
摘要
Electrochemical energy storage has emerged as a prominent research focus in recent years, owing to the escalating energy demands of contemporary society. Beside batteries, supercapacitors (SCs) are increasingly recognized as promising renewable and sustainable energy storage devices. The electrochemical performance of SCs is hugely dictated by the choice of the electrode material, the nature of the electrolyte, and the operational potential windows employed during analysis. Carbon-based electrode materials have tunable electrical conductivity, high surface area and fast electron transfer kinetics, but their low specific capacitance hinders commercialization. Ruthenium Oxide (RuO2) materials are substantially recognized as suitable material for SC application due to its high specific capacitance value, but high fabrication cost and effect of agglomeration inhibit its market usage. Thus, RuO2-based composite materials are widely considered, to optimize the materials cost as well as to improve the performance synergistically. Here in this work, activated carbon (AC) was derived from Azadirachta indica and RuO2/AC composite was synthesized using Anacyclus pyrethrum as a reducing and capping agent via green method. The synthesized materials were characterized using various in situ and ex situ techniques. The in situ electrochemical characterization reveals the specific capacitance of 502 F/g at 2 mV/s and 98% capacitance retention from cyclic stability test at 1A/g. The obtained result supports the suitability of composite material toward supercapacitor applications.