WETTABILITY IMPROVEMENT OF CNT FOR SUPERCAPACITOR ELECTRODE

• Main Author: Luthfiana, Nisaa
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/49661
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Carbon Nanotube (CNT) has outstanding properties such as electrical conductivity, specific surface area, charge transport capability, mesoporosity and very high electrolyte accessibility. Based on these properties, CNTs are very suitable to be used as high-performance supercapacitor electrodes which can be seen from the capacitance. One of the factors that can lead to increase capacitance is the high interface interaction between CNT and the electrolyte. The interface interaction of CNT and electrolyte can be improved by increasing the CNT wettability using hydrophilization. CNT is synthesized by pyrolysis with Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) as the main raw material. In this study, hydrophilization was carried out using chemical activation HNO3 with various concentrations and activation times (1M for 1, 3, 6 hour and 13M for 1 hour). The results of CNT structure were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), as well as electrochemically characterized using cyclic voltammetry (CV), Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) dan galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), as supported data to evaluate which concentration and activation time with the highest efficiency to improve CNT performance as a supercapacitor. Based on CV characterization, capacitance of CNT before hydrofilization, and after hydrofilization using HNO3 (1M for 1 hour, 3 hour, 6 hour and 13M for 1 hour) were 10 F/g, 13.30 F/g, 14.28 F/g, 26.95 F/g and 24.5 F/g respectively. When CNT hydrophilized at 13M for 1 hour, capacitance decreased. Due to surface damage of CNT, therefore the performance of supercapacitor decreased. This was supported with the results of the GCD characterization, where some charges could not completely released.