Comparative study of metal-doped carbon aerogel: Physical properties and electrochemical performance

The influence of metals on the structure and performance of carbon aerogels is presented here. Metal-doped carbon aerogels (M-CA) were obtained by a simple in situ method without any catalyst. The physical properties were characterized by SEM, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, XPS, and N2 adsorption-desorption. The results show that the addition of metal particles did not destroy the original 3D structure of carbon aerogels, and Ni-CA displayed excellent pore size distribution and a high degree of graphitization. The results of the electrochemical performance revealed nickel doped carbon aerogel (Ni-CA) gave the highest specific capacitance (126.6 F g− 1) at 1 A g− 1 because of the suitable pore size distribution and high conductivity. A cycling performance test showed good cycle stability of all the M-CA in this study, and the attenuation of Ni-CA after 1000 cycles was the lowest recorded, at only 0.6%.