Electrochemical performances of supercapacitors from carbon-ZrO2 composites

A two-electrode symmetric supercapacitor based on the carbon xerogel-ZrO2 composites exhibits a high electrochemical performance better than other similar materials from the literature with high capacitances (up to 180 F g−1 at 0.125 A g−1 for 30% ZrO2 composite), a high retention capacitance and high energy density, 27.1 Wh kg−1, at a power density of 140 W kg−1 in the voltage range of 0 V-1.2 V. The presence of zirconium oxide in the carbon matrix improves in all case the capacitive behavior of samples in spite of the decrease of the surface area and micropore volume of the samples. That has been explained on the base of different textural properties and/or chemical characteristic of the material.