Phenolic carbon cloth-based electric double-layer capacitors with conductive interlayers and graphene coating

Phenolic resin-derived activated carbon (AC) cloths are used as electrodes for large-scale electric double-layer capacitors or supercapacitors. To increase the energy and power density of the supercapacitor, the contact resistance between the carbon cloth and the aluminium foil current collector is reduced by modifying the Al current collectors. Different modified Al current collectors, including Toyal-Carbo®(surface-modified Al), DAG® (deflocculated Acheson™ graphite) coating and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) coating, have been tested and compared. The use of modified Al current collectors are shown to greatly reduce the contact resistance between the AC cloth and the Al foil. Another solution investigated in this study is to coat AC cloth with graphene through electrophoretic deposition (EPD). The graphene coated AC cloth is shown increased the capacitance and greatly reduced internal resistance.