Date of Award
5-1-2014
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Physics
First Advisor
Talapatra, Saikat
Abstract
In this research we have investigated electrochemical and impedance characteristics of liquid phase exfoliated graphene electrodes. The exfoliated graphene electrodes were characterized in Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitors (EDLCs) geometry. Liquid phase exfoliation was performed on bulk graphite powder in order to produces few layer graphene flakes in large quantities. The exfoliation processes produced few layer graphene based materials with increased specific surface area and were found to have suitable electrochemical charge storage capacities. Electrochemical evaluation and performance of exfoliated graphene electrodes were tested with Cyclic Voltammetry, constant current charging discharging and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) at ambient conditions. We have used several electrolytes in order to evaluate the effect of electrolyte in charge storage capacities. Specific capacitance value of ~ 47F/g and ~ 262F/g was measured for aqueous and ionic electrolytes respectively. These values are at least an order of magnitude higher than those obtained by using EDLC's electrodes fabricated with the bulk graphite powder. In addition these EDLC electrodes give consistently good performance over a wide range of scan rates and voltage windows. These encouraging results illustrate the exciting potential for high performance electrical energy storage devices based on liquid phase exfoliated graphene electrodes.
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