(186c) Quaternized g-Carbon Nitride As a High Performance Electrode Material for Supercapacitors

For the first time, quaternized graphitic carbon nitride (Q-gCN) was used as base material for the fabrication of supercapacitor electrodes. More specifically, Q-gCN was synthesized via reductive alkylation of graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) and subsequently deposited onto a carbon fiber paper by paint brush method. A wide variety of characterization techniques including XRD, FTIR, Raman, UV-vis, TGA, SEM, and TEM were used to assess the physicochemical properties of these novel materials. In addition, the effect of some variables such as material load and electrolyte nature on the electrode performance were evaluated using cyclic voltammetry, charge-discharge test, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. For this purpose, a split test cell (MTI Corp.) containing two identical electrodes separated by a piece of cellulose paper was used as a supercapacitor. Before running the tests, some drops of H₂SO₄ (or KOH) electrolyte solution were added to the cell.