Carbonized nanocellulose sustainably boosts the performance of activated carbon in ionic liquid supercapacitors

Abstract Carbonized cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) have been employed to improve the rate performance of activated carbon (AC) traditionally used in supercapacitors. Because of the large amount of surface functionalities, CNF form strongly interconnected composite with AC, which turns into a free-standing carbon nanofibers/AC film after carbonization. In the film, the carbon nanofibers are ‘welded’ on AC particles and integrate them into one piece of carbon. The interaction between AC and carbon nanofibers, originating from the strong AC-nanocellulose affinity, is much stronger than the traditional physically mixed AC/nanocarbon composite and also significantly reduces the contact resistance in the composite. Conductive atomic force microscope (C-AFM) analysis reveals that the network of carbonized CNF possesses markedly better electron transport efficiency than the AC particles. When tested as supercapacitor electrode at commercial level mass loading, the composite film exhibits 2 times slower capacitance fading at high current and 3 times higher maximum power density than the bare AC. In addition, using the nanocellulose, which is derived from renewable resources, increases the total electrode cost only by a small margin, thereby making the composite a competitive electrode material for electricity storage on a large scale.