Carbon-based nanomaterial hybrids energy storage applications

• Main Author: Jayakumar, Anjali
• Other Authors: Lee Jong Min
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Bioengineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/89090; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/47651
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Supercapacitors are emerging as highly promising electrochemical energy storage devices, which can be sources of clean and sustainable energy. Off late, a lot of studies are ongoing in the field of carbon-based hydrogels for use in electrodes for supercapacitors. A lot of hybrid materials employing carbon frameworks and pseudo-capacitive materials are finding a lot of importance in the current scientific environment, as they synergistically improve the electrochemical performance of the supercapacitor electrode. It is also highly imperative to carefully choose the components of the hybrid, since the final properties and performance of the material will highly depend on the individual properties of the components. In the light of these important parameters, my study focuses on the synthesis of hybrid materials with carbon-based materials for a base. In the initial phase of my work, soft materials like three-dimensional graphene hydrogel hybrid systems were used. Polyaniline and manganese oxides nanoparticles were embedded in a graphene hydrogel matrix and their performance was studied for supercapacitor applications. Zeolite imidazole framework-derived (ZIF-67) nickel cobalt mixed oxides were then embedded in graphene hydrogels and were found to perform better than the Manganese oxide/polyaniline/graphene hydrogel. A biomass-derived carbon/Ni Co metal nanoparticle system was designed to mimic this graphene/Ni Co mixed oxide system, with a new and non-conventional use of a coconut tree fibre, coconut leaf sheath; a cheap substitute for graphene. My study shows the possibility of using a well-studied, optimised and functionalised biomass-derived carbon as a cheap substitute for graphene and the detailed comparison studies have shown that the energy-power density matrix for a biomass derived carbon framework embedded with ZIF-derived Ni-Co nanoparticles is comparable with a graphene/ZIF-derived Ni Co mixed oxide system. This highlights the untapped potential in our abundantly available renewable resources like biomass.