Synthesis of Carbide Derived Carbon by Electrolysis in Molten Chloride Salts in Open Air

Carbide-derived carbon (CDC) refers to a form of carbon produced from carbon containing substrates. The prepared carbon with the combination of diverse carbon phases in one material not only is good at tribology and gas storage but also can be used in capacitors due to its high surface area. Compared to previous CDC synthesis methods, an improvement producing CDC by electrolysis in LiCl-KCl in open air is proposed in this work which makes the process more convenient and low-cost. Produced CDC, both SiC-CDC and TiC-CDC, showed broader D and G peaks, larger ratio of intensity (ID/IG) and FWHM (full width at half maximum) than those of untreated SiC or pure graphite on Raman results, indicating that CDCs with more disordered structures which may contain nanocrystalline graphite (NCG) and amorphous carbon (a-C) are successfully produced. The theoretical thickness of sample 4 is estimated by calculation which is approximately 1.44 μm.