Dependence of Capacitive Properties of an EDLC on Exfoliation Time of Graphite Electrodes
Abstract The scientific focus has been directed through the production and application of ‘wonder material- graphene’ after its discovery in 2004. But the mass production cost has become a huge disadvantage towards commercializing graphene based manufactures. As alternative low cost material, exfoliated graphite (EG) has emerged to be a novel nanostructured carbon material with a potential for electrochemical energy storage device applications owed to its unique characteristics similar to graphene. In this study a series of EG samples were prepared by a surfactant mediated liquid phase exfoliation method by changing the exfoliation time. Electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLCs) were fabricated using different EG samples as an electrode material and a gel polymer electrolyte (GPE). They were characterized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge discharge (GCD) techniques. EDLC having EG electrodes of 10 h exfoliation time showed the highest results with single electrode specific capacitance (Csc) of 4.12 F g− 1, single electrode specific discharge capacitance (Csd) of 1.10 F g− 1 and relaxation time of 0.22 s from CV, GCD and EIS respectively.