ABSTRACT
Brunauer–Emmett–Teller is an important tool for Electrochemical Supercapacitor (ES) characterization because surface area and pore size are both important parameters in determining material capacitance. It is used to determine specific surface areas of electrode materials such as activated carbon and graphene. In ESs, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) is used to collect and examine the microstructures of electrode materials, providing information about pore arrangements. TEM can also estimate the level of carbon nanotube aggregation or graphene layer thickness. Raman is used as a complementary tool with TEM and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) to examine structures and chemical composition changes of ES electrode materials that have undergone chemical or physical alterations, for example, characterizations of graphene, thin films, and electrode materials that will undergo pseudocapacitive redox reactions. A typical Raman spectroscopy instrument should have an excitation source, sample illumination and light collection optic system, spectrophotometer, and a detector.
