Energy storage systems play a pivotal role in harvesting energy from various sources and converting it to the energy forms required for... Show moreEnergy storage systems play a pivotal role in harvesting energy from various sources and converting it to the energy forms required for applications in several sectors, such as utility, industry, building and transportation. The outstanding growth of portable electronic devices and electric vehicle/hybrid electric vehicles (EVs/HEVs) has promoted the urgent and increasing demand for high‐power energy resources. The most common electrical energy‐storage device is the battery due to the large amount of energy stored in a relatively small volume and weight while providing suitable levels of power for many applications and requirements of everyday life. These days, lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) have been drawing attention with their potential to provide 3-5 times more energy than that of current lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) at lower cost. Thus, realization of a practical Li-S technology can move the U.S. rapidly toward a more sustainable transportation future. The electrochemical double-layer capacitor (EDLC) is also an emerging technology, which really plays a key part in fulfilling the demands of electronic devices and systems, for present and future. The EDLC technology strongly depends on the properties of electrode materials. Activated carbons play an important role in developing new electrodes for both LSB and supercapacitor technologies. For example, carbon electrode-based supercapacitors require very high specific surface area and superior pore size distribution for easy accessibility of ions. Thus, the primary objective of this study is to develop a new high surface area carbon material and assess its applicability for both LSB and supercapacitor technologies. In this thesis work, we have designed and synthesized several active carbon materials. One of them displayed very high surface area (1,832 m2/g) and excellent pore diameter (3.6 nm). We investigated the applicability of this carbon material for supercapacitor electrodes. We have also modified this carbon material with a nickel-rich phosphide in order to make it suitable for LSB cathode applications. Show less
