Carbon xerogels (CXs) with three-dimensional (3D) structure, unusual surface, physical, electrical and mechanical properties and their electrically conductive polymer polypyrrole (PPy) composites were synthesized as electrode materials for supercapacitors. The effect of different resorcinol/formaldehyde (R/C) ratios, whether solvent exchange with or without acetone and polypyrrole addition on the physicochemical (FTIR, XRD, BET, SEM and TGA) and electrochemical properties (CV, 1000 cycles) of the synthesized materials were investigated. It was observed that the R/C ratio and the solvent exchange process prior to drying affect the specific surface areas and the pore size distributions, thereby positively affecting the specific capacitance. PPy film thickness was observed to be effective in the specific capacitance of the electrode in PPy composite synthesis. Among the synthesized materials, the highest specific capacitance values belong to polypyrrole/carbon xerogel composites. As a result of the analysis and calculations, it was found that the highest specific capacitance belongs to CX2/PPy composite with 599 Fg− 1 at 5 mVs− 1. CX2/PPy composite has been found to have a capacitance retention rate of 80.30% at the end of 1000 cycles.

Platinum (Pt) catalysts dispersed on carbon-based support materials are generally used in the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. In this study, commercial graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs), with different surface areas (320, 530, 800 m2 g− 1), were used as catalyst supports in PEM fuel cells. These GNPs were also pyrolyzed under the inert atmosphere, with and without melamine, as the nitrogen (N) source. Various characterizations (Elemental analysis, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, BET, TEM, HRTEM, SAED, XRD, TGA, ICP-MS, contact angle measurement, CV, ORR, chronoamperometry, EIS, PEM fuel cell performance test) were performed for the detailed analysis of Pt/GNPs. Based on the three-electrode cell system, the lowest electrochemical surface area (ECSA) loss (29.9%), Pt mass activity loss (20.3%) and overall (charge and mass) resistance (42.2 Ω) were obtained with the Pt/M-530 catalyst. According to the in-situ PEM fuel cell performance results, the specific peak power density was recorded as (450 mW mg Pt− 1) for the Pt/R-530 catalyst, which has also the second most hydrophobic catalyst layer surface with the 146.5° ± 1.28° contact angle value. On the heels of Pt/R-530, the two best performances also belong to the Pt/M-530 (391 mW mg Pt− 1) and Pt/P-530 (378 mW mg Pt− 1) catalysts of the same group.