Determining water content in activated carbon for double-layer capacitor electrodes

Karl-Fisher titration is used to estimate water contents in activated carbon and the distribution of impurity-level water in an activated carbon-solvent system. Normalization of the water content of activated carbon is attempted using vacuum drying after immersion in water was controlled. Although vacuum drying at 473 K and 24 h can remove large amounts of water, a substantial amount of water remains in the activated carbon. The water release to propylene carbonate is less than that to acetonitrile. The degradation of capacitor cell capacitance for activated carbon with some amount of water differs according to the electrolyte solvent type: acetonitrile promotes greater degradation than propylene carbonate does.