In situ carbon-supported titanium dioxide (ICS-TiO2) as an electrode material for high performance supercapacitors

Abstract

Supercapacitors have attracted significant attention in the last few years as they have the capability to fulfill the demand for both power and energy density in many energy storage applications. In this study, an in situ carbon-supported titanium oxide (ICS-TiO₂) electrode has been prepared using sucrose and TiO₂ powder. The ICS-TiO₂ powder was prepared by slipcasting, followed by the annealing of the TiO₂ slurry. Sucrose was added to the TiO₂ slurry as a soluble carbon source, and was converted into carbon at 600 °C then coated on the TiO₂ particles. The morphological and structural evolution of the electrode was investigated by FEG-SEM, FEG-TEM, XRD, BET, FTIR, XPS and Raman spectroscopy. The electrochemical characterization of ICS-TiO₂ demonstrated that this material exhibits an efficient value of specific capacitance (277.72 F g⁻¹ at 25 mV s⁻¹) for charge storage. ISC-TiO₂ also exhibits a specific capacitance of 180 F g⁻¹ at 2 A g⁻¹ in a 1 M Na₂SO₄ aqueous electrolyte. The results suggest that ICS-TiO₂ can be utilized as a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors with desirable electrochemical properties.