Electrochemical performance of RuOx/activated carbon black composite for supercapacitors

Abstract Hydrous ruthenium oxide/activated carbon black (RuOx/ACB) composite was synthesized for the first time for supercapacitors by a chemical impregnation method. The RuOx/ACB composite is characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The results of TGA and TEM characterization showed that the reaction temperature of composite moved to lower temperature due to the catalytic effect of RuOx. XRD characterization of RuOx/AC illustrated that amorphous hydrous RuOx structure maintained in the composite heated at 150 °C. The equivalent series resistance (ESR) of the composite almost increased with the increase of RuOx content in the composite. The specific capacitance (Csp) of the composite increased with increasing RuOx content in the composite while the Csp of RuOx decreased from 1255.8 to 533.7 F g−1. The above results showed that the utilization of RuOx decreased with higher loading RuOx on ACB.