Home – Home – Jornals – Chemistry for Sustainable Development 2017 number 6

The development of alternative power engineering requires the development of highly effective systems for energy storage and transformation. The paper presents a new approach to the solution of a task of preparation of nanostructured composite electrodes for supercapacitors based on highly porous carbon matrixes. The way consists in thermal (slow or explosive) decomposition of nanocrystals of high-energy compounds pre-generated in matrix pores. A method for preparation of С/CoN₆ composite with a given phase ratio is developed within carried out research. Thermal decomposition of CoN₆ proceeds in explosive or non-explosive modes depending on composite composition and heating mode, as shown. According to X-ray diffractometry, decomposition product in non-explosive mode is Co₂O₃, while in explosive mode - nanoscale cobalt oxide (CoO). The sizes of inhomogeneities formed on the carbon matrix during composite preparation are 7-10 nm, as demonstrated by the study of С/CoN₆ composite using the small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) technique. Electrochemical properties of the resulting nanocomposite material are studied. The introduction of cobalt oxide into carbon matrix leads to an increase in the resistance and electric capacitance of composite electrodes, as illustrated. Capacitance increase is due to the pseudo-capacitance of cobalt oxides because of reversed redox processes with the involvement of oxide hydroxide phases of cobalt generated during cell charge/discharge.