Effect of Different Ni/S Concentration on the Supercapacitor Properties of Activated Carbon/NiS Electrode
Memoria Rosi, Irfan Afandi Syamsudin, Indra Wahyudhin Fathona, and Abrar Ismardi

Department of Engineering Physics, School of Electrical Engineering, Telkom University

Corresponding author: memoriarosi[at]telkomuniversity.ac.id

Abstract

This study reports on the manufacture of supercapacitor electrodes based on a composite of the activated carbon/NiS. Activated carbon is often used as an active material for ionic storage due to its nanoporous structure and high surface area. However, the activated carbon has a low specific capacitance which is limited by the Electric Double Layer Capacitor/EDLC principle. Here, we introduce the NiS as a faradic redox agent to improve the specific capacitance of the activated carbon supercapacitor through the pseudo capacitor mechanism. The Ni/S concentration varied from 10:1, 1:1, and 1:10. To make the composite activated carbon/NiS, the activated carbon was firstly prepared on the nickel foam as a current electrode, and then the NiS was electrodeposited using the produced activated carbon electrode as the working electrode, platinum as counter electrode and Ag/AgCl as a reference electrode. The electrodeposition voltage was applied from -1.2V to 0.2 V with a scan rate of 5mV/s. The activated carbon/NiS electrodes were evaluated using Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), cyclic voltammetry (CV), Galvanostat Charge-Discharge (GCD), and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS).

Keywords: NiS, activated carbon- electrodeposition- specific capacitance- supercapacitor- EDLC, pseudo capacitor

Topic: Materials for energy