Chemical and electrochemical characterization of porous carbon materials.pdfVIP

Carbon 44 2006 2642–2651 /locate/carbon Chemical and electrochemical characterization of porous carbon materials ′ a ′ a ′ b M.J. Bleda-Mart?nez , D. Lozano-Castello , E. Morallon , ′ a,* a D. Cazorla-Amoros , A. Linares-Solano a ′ ′ Departamento de Qu?mica Inorganica, Universidad de Alicante, Ap. 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain b ′ ′sic Departamento de Qu?mica-F? a, Universidad de Alicante, Ap. 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain Received 17 November 2005; accepted 11 April 2006 Available online 19 May 2006 Abstract Chemical and electrochemical techniques have been used in order to asses surface functionalities of porous carbon materials. An anthracite has been chemically activated using both KOH and NaOH as activating agents. As a result, activated carbons with high micropore volume higher than 1 cm3/g have been obtained. These samples were oxidized with HNO3 and thermally treated in N2 ?ow at di?erent temperatures in order to obtain porous carbon materials with di?erent amounts of surface oxygen complexes. Thermal treat- ment in H2 was also carried out. The sample treated with H2 was subsequently treated in air ?ow at 450 C. Thus, materials with very similar porous texture and widely di?erent surface chemistry have been compared. The surface chemistry of the resulting materials was systematically characterized by TPD experiments and XPS measurements. Galvanostatic and voltammetric techniques were used to dee- pen into the characterization of the surface oxygen complexes. The combination of both, chemical and electrochemical methods provide unique information, regarding the key role of surface chemistry in improving carbon wettability in aqueous solution and the redox pro- cesses undergone by the surface oxygen groups. Both contributions are of relevance to understand the use of porous carbons as electro- chemical capacitors. 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Activated carbon; Chemical treatment; Temp