Herein, a conductive boron-doped nanodiamond (BDND) particle is prepared as an electrode material for an aqueous electric double-layer capacitor with high power and energy densities. The BDND is obtained by depositing a boron-doped diamond (BDD) on a nanodiamond particle substrate with a primary particle size of 4.7 nm via microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition, followed by heat treatment in air. The BDND comprises BDD and sp2 carbon components, and exhibits a conductivity above 10−2 S cm−1 and a specific surface area of 650 m2 g−1. Cyclic voltammetry measurements recorded in 1 M H2SO4 at a BDND electrode in a two-electrode system shows a capacitance of 15.1 F g−1 and a wide potential window (cell voltage) of 1.8 V, which is much larger than that obtained at an activated carbon electrode, i.e., 0.8 V. Furthermore, the cell voltage of the BDND electrode reaches 2.8 V when using saturated NaClO4 as electrolyte. The energy and power densities per unit weight of the BDND for charging–discharging in 1 M H2SO4 at the BDND electrode cell are 10 Wh kg−1 and 104 W kg−1, respectively, and the energy and power densities per unit volume of the BDND layer are 3–4 mWh cm−3 and 10 W cm−3, respectively. Therefore, the BDND is a promising candidate for the development of a compact aqueous EDLC device with high energy and power densities.

The electrochemical properties of boron-doped diamond powder (BDDP) were investigated as a step toward its application to aqueous electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs). Conductive BDDPs (particle size: 150, 350, and 3500 nm) were prepared by depositing a BDD layer on the surface of a diamond powder (DP) core with various particle sizes (100, 300, and 2600 nm) via microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition. The 150-nm-sized BDDP (BDDP-150) had a relatively large Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area (106 m 2 /g). Cyclic voltammetry of the BDDP electrodes in 1.0 M H 2 SO 4 with a symmetric two-electrode system showed an operating voltage of 1.5 V, which is much larger than that of an activated carbon (AC) electrode (0.8 V). In addition, compared to the AC electrode, the BDDP electrodes showed lower capacitance-decrease ratios at fast scan rates. Hence, BDDP-150 had greater energy and power densities than the AC electrode under high rate conditions in the aqueous electrolyte. As the BDDP electrode had a larger bulk density than the AC electrode, aqueous EDLC using BDDP can be expected to be used as a space-saving electric energy storage system suitable for high-speed charging and discharging.

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