Date of Graduation

5-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Chemistry & Biochemistry

Advisor/Mentor

Tian, Ryan

Committee Member/Reader

Kilyanek, Stefan

Abstract

Supercapacitors are ideal tools for energy storage due to their wide range of operation temperatures, long cycle-lives, high power densities of up to 13,000 W/kg, and fast rates of charge-discharge thereby having a high specific capacitance. This research reports synthesis of grapheme-based materials using a modified Hummer’s method. Graphene oxide synthesized first and then converted to reduced graphene oxide sheets and graphene-powder, which both increase the ionic conductivity due to sp2 bonding and a high surface area. These materials were then constructed into a button-cell supercapacitor for testing. For the first supercapacitors, a porous polypropylene membrane (Celgard) that acted as a separator was placed between the reduced grapheme oxide electrode sheets. Propylene carbonate diluted in sodium perchlorate solution was used as an electrolyte. As an attempt, we replaced the Celgard with a graphene oxide-COOH membrane. This acted as a

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