Electrical double-layer characteristics of novel carbide-derived carbon materials

A variety of nanoporous carbide-derived carbon materials possessing improved pore size distributions were synthesised from a mixture of titanium carbide and titanium dioxide. It was observed that TiO2 caused partial oxidation of the carbon particles created during high-temperature chlorination of the TiC/TiO2 mixture. The resulting carbon powder is characterised by narrow pore size distribution with a peak pore size of around 8 angstrom and a noticeably smaller amount of pores below 6-7 angstrom compared to the carbon derived from pure TiC. Electrochemical and electrical double-layer characteristics of novel carbon materials in the acetonitrile solution of triethylmethylammonium tetrafluoroborate were obtained by using cyclic voltammetry and constant current methods. Carbon electrode materials of this study were tested over the temperature range from -10 degrees C to +60 degrees C. Results of this study affirmed a great potential of the synthesised advanced carbide-derived carbon, whose specific double-layer capacitance reaches approximately 90 F cm(-3) and 125 F g(-1). (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.