Activated carbons to be used as electrode in electrochemical double-layer capacitors were fabricated using amphiphilic carbonaceous material (ACM) as precursor. To study the significance of functional groups and microcrystalline of the precursor in preparing AC, we applied pre-carbonization upon the ACM under different conditions to control these two parameters in this paper. FTIR and XPS spectra showed functional groups on the precursors decreased as the increase of pre-carbonization temperature. After carbonization at 800 °C, the growth of graphitic microcrystallites was noticeable. Porous structure parameters of final ACs inferred that the functional groups on the precursors have a more significant effect than microcrystalline size on formation of mesopores during activation process not only for its role as active sites but also the homogeneous activation profited from the solubility of samples in alkaline solutions. The sample AC0 with almost half mesopores showed the best electrochemical behavior with a specific gravimetric capacitance of 255 F/g at current density of 1000mA/g and kept rectangular shape cyclic voltammetry curve even at scan rate high as 400 mV/s.

Millimeter size Hollow carbon spheres (HCSs) with high specific surface area were successfully prepared from resole-type phenolic resin by suspension polymerization method at ordinary pressure. During the polymerization process, large sums of small molecule gathered at the center and formed the hollow part, bigger spheres with a broad size distribution were then formed under stirring force and surface tension, the maximum external diameter of the obtained HCSs was 1.2mm and the hollow diameter was about 0.35mm. After activating at 800°C under a stream of steam, the specific surface area and total pore volume of the HCSs were reached as 1117m2/g and 0.61cm3/g.

Composites consisting of Ce0.8Sm0.2O1.9 (SDC)-carbonate were developed as electrolytes for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LTSOFC). The SDC power was prepared by sol-gel method. The carbonates were binary eutectics of (Li/Na)2CO3, (Li/K)2CO3 and (K/Na)2CO3. Conductivity measurements showed that the conductivities were depended on the type of carbonates. Discontinuities were found in the Arrhenius plots for both SDC-(Li/Na)2CO3 and SDC-(Li/K)2CO3. For SDC-(Na/K)2CO3 composite electrolyte, the conductivity increased as temperature rose following one slope. Single cells based on various composites were fabricated by a uniaxial die-press method and tested at 450-600 oC. The results showed all cells exhibited improved performances upon that of pure SDC-based cell. The best power density of 532 mW cm-2 at 600 oC was achieved for LTSOFC using composite of SDC and (Li/Na)2CO3. Conductivity mechanism was also discussed.

Leaves, which are very easy to obtain freely, can be used as raw materials to prepare carbon materials. In this paper, we found that hard carbon can be prepared from willow leaves by one-step carbonization. When the hard carbon was used as anode materials for Li-ion batteries, the revisable capacity of the hard carbon was 230-260 mAhg-1 at the current density of 37.2 mAg-1 with a first-cycle coulombic efficiency of about 50 %. In addition, the hard carbon shows stable cycling performance and good rate capability.

In this paper, besides the single method of air blowing and thermal condensation, a new two-step combining method was taken to modulate the pitch precursor for carbon fibers: the ethylene tar pitch was first air-blown under 280 °C for 10 h, and then thermal-condensed in nitrogen under 380 °C. Then group composition, elemental and thermal analysis, FT-IR, SEM and polarized optical micrographs were used in this paper, and the influence of different methods of modulation on the performance of pitches was discussed. The results revealed that neither in the method of air blowing nor thermal treatment can the pitch with a high softening point and coking value but no mesophase be produced. However, isotropic spinnable pitch with high softening point (286 °C), coking value (80.2%) and superior thermal stabilities can be synthesized in the two-step combining method. Carbon fibers from such pitches had been produced through melt-spinning, stabilization and carbonization, they showed uniform diameters (about 15.5 μm) with smooth and homogeneous surfaces. After stabilization and carbonization, the shrinkage of carbon fibers’ diameter was limited to 6%.