An improved adsorption method for the characterization of water-based supercapacitor electrodes

The specific surface area is a key characteristic of carbon materials used in supercapacitor electrodes. In this paper, the use of a methylene blue technique for specific surface area determination is presented. Values for the specific surface area, determined by a new method, provide better correlation with theoretical values for the specific electrical capacity of highly-porous carbon electrodes than the values measured by the common BET method. Additionally, the methylene blue adsorption method is thought to characterize carbon adsorption activity in relation to a supercapacitor electrolyte.