Effect of Surface Treatment on Performance of Electrode Material Based on Carbon Fiber Cloth

Abstract

The carbon fiber cloth was treated by surface treatment, and then it was used as the electrode substrate. The electrode material based on carbon fibers was synthesized by a galvanostatic electrodeposition method. The interface resistivity, electrochemical property and corrosion resistance of the CF/β-PbO2 electrode were characterized by four-probe method and electrochemical workstation, respectively. The results show that the surface roughness and chemical activity of the carbon fibers can be significantly improved through surface treatment. The carbon fibers possess the best chemical activity on the surface at the hot-air oxidation temperature of 400℃. Joint hot-air and liquid-phase oxidations show that the chemical activity of the carbon fibers on the surface is further improved, the grooves and pits on the surface of the carbon fibers are more obvious, after this treatment, the interface resistivity of the CF/β-PbO2 electrode reaches the minimum value of 6.19×10-5Ω·m, meanwhile, the conductivity and the electrochemical property of the CF/β-PbO2 electrode reaches the best, and with the best corrosion resistance, the corrosion rate is only 1.44×10-3g·cm-2·h-1.Thus, the interface resistivity, electrochemical property and corrosion resistance of the CF/β-PbO2 electrode depend on the the interface structure of the CF/β-PbO2 electrode obtained under different surface treatments.

Keywords

• CF/β-PbO₂ electrode
• surface treatment
• interface resistivity
• electrochemical property
• corrosion resistance