Novel polybenzoxazine-based carbon aerogel electrode for supercapacitors

In this study, polybenzoxazine, a new high performance thermosetting resin, was used to prepare carbon aerogels used as an electrode for supercapacitors. Two types of polybenzoxazines, derived from two different amines, aniline and triethylenetetramine, and denoted as BA-a and BA-teta, respectively, were chosen as the reactants for the organic precursor preparation. The surface area of carbon aerogels from both BA-a and BA-teta was 391 and 368 m2/g, respectively. The pore size of each carbon aerogel was in the range of 2–5 nm, which is a suitable pore size for use as electrodes in electrochemical applications. The electrochemical properties of the obtained carbon aerogels showed good performance for supercapacitor applications with a specific capacitance of 55.78 and 20.53 F/g for BA-teta and BA-a, respectively. At low voltage scanning, 1 and 5 mV/s, the cyclic voltammogram of the carbon aerogel derived from BA-teta gave a better rectangular shape than that of the other carbon aerogel. The impedance spectra of both carbon aerogels confirmed the results of the capacitance and the cyclic voltammogram analyses.