Electrochemical testing and comparison of supercapacitator prototypes derived from soot and treated with N,N-dimethylformamide and perchloroethylene

Abstract A comparative electrochemical study is presented of a carbon material treated in two different ways with potential for application as a supercapacitor. The carbon-containing material is household chimney soot and the chemicals specially selected for cleaning/modification are N,N-dymethylformamide and perchloroethylene. Both chemicals are common, strong and broadly used solvents in organic chemistry. Perchloroethylene is a dry cleaning agent and N,N-dimethylformamide is used also as a medium in organic chemistry. A comparative evaluation is made of the cyclic curves obtained of symmetric supercapacitor cells with alkaline electrolyte (1M KOH) at different scan rates and potential window for both materials. The dependences are also examined of the specific capacitance on the number of cycles for symmetric supercapacitors at a current load of 200 mAg −1 . Both materials are studied using infrared and Raman spectroscopy in order to establish the structural changes that have occurred.