Lithium perrhenate catalyst for carbon aerogel-based supercapacitor

Abstract: Carbon aerogels are unique type of amorphous carbon-based materials with an extraordinary properties including light weight, well-developed and tailored pore structure, high specific surface area, low electrical resistivity and high purity. Therefore carbon aerogels can be used in numerous applications, including energy storage materials such as supercapacitors or lithium-ion batteries. Synthesis of hydrogel requires accurate concentration of monomers and catalysts, exact temperature and time. Low-density carbon aerogel can be produced using a complicated supercritical drying method, which allows to expel solvent without carbon porous structure collapse. Here we report a possibility to use novel type of resorcinol/formaldehyde gelation catalyst based on rhenium salt. The organic gel obtained using lithium perrhenate was traditionally carbonized and examined with respect to energy storage properties. It was found that interaction of lithium and rhenium atoms with monomers resulted in completely different structure than using typical sodium carbonate catalyst. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]