Performance of electric double layer capacitors using nanocarbons produced from nanoparticles of resorcinol–formaldehyde polymers

In this study, nanocarbons produced from nanoparticles of resorcinol–formaldehyde (RF) polymers were used instead of the conventional activated carbon for polarized electrodes in electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs) in order to improve their capacitance. The capacitances and internal resistances of the fabricated EDLCs were evaluated from their discharge characteristics. EDLCs with nanocarbon-based electrodes showed fairly high capacitance and had almost the same internal resistance as those using activated-carbon-based electrodes. In particular, capacitors using nanocarbons with a Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of 2193 m2 g−1 showed the highest capacitance among the fabricated samples. The specific capacitance of the best capacitor was evaluated to be 202 F g−1. It was also found that the use of nanoparticles of resorcinol–formaldehyde polymers as nanocarbon precursors helps improve the energy density of the capacitors.