The current density in copper electroplating is directly related with the productivity; then, to increase the productivity, an increase in current density is required. This study is based on an analysis of changes in surface characteristics and mechanical properties by applying the addition of Alcian Blue (AB, C56H68Cl4CuN16S4). The amount of Alcian Blue in the electrolytes is changed from 0 to 100 ppm. When Alcian Blue is added at 20 ppm, a seed layer is formed homogeneously on the surface at the initial stage of nucleation. However, crystals electroplated in electrolytes with more than 40 ppm of Alcian Blue are observed to have growth in the vertical direction on the surface and the shapes are like pyramids. This tendency of initial nucleation formation causes protrusions when the thickness of copper foil is 12 μm. Thereafter, a lot of extrusions are observed on the group of 100 ppm Alcian Blue. Tensile strength of groups with added Alcian Blue increased by more than 140% compare to no-addition group, but elongation is reduced. These results are due to the decrease of crystal size and changes of prior crystal growth plane from (111) and (200) to (220) due to Alcian Blue.

In this study, we intensively investigated the effect of conductive additive amount on electrochemical performance of organic supercapacitors. For this purpose, we assembled coin-type organic supercapacitor cells with a variation of conductive additive(carbon black) amount; carbon aerogel and polyvinylidene fluoride were employed as active material and binder, respectively. Carbon aerogel, which is a highly mesoporous and ultralight material, was prepared via pyrolysis of resorcinolformaldehyde gels synthesized from polycondensation of two starting materials using sodium carbonate as the base catalyst. Successful formation of carbon aerogel was well confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and N2 adsorptiondesorption analysis. Electrochemical performances of the assembled organic supercapacitor cells were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. Amount of conductive additive was found to strongly affect the charge transfer resistance of the supercapacitor electrodes, leading to a different optimal amount of conductive additive in organic supercapacitor electrodes depending on the applied charge-discharge rate. A high-rate charge-discharge process required a relatively high amount of conductive additive. Through this work, we came to conclude that determining the optimal amount of conductive additive in developing an efficient organic supercapacitor should include a significant consideration of supercapacitor end use, especially the rate employed for the charge-discharge process.

The effects of the mixing of an active material and a conductive additive on the electrochemical performance of an electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) electrode were investigated. Coin-type EDLC cells with an organic electrolyte were fabricated using the electrode samples with different ball-milling times for the mixing of an active material and a conductive additive. The ball-milling time had a strong influence on the electrochemical performance of the EDLC electrode. The homogeneous mixing of the active material and the conductive additive by ball-milling was very important to obtain an efficient EDLC electrode. However, an EDLC electrode with an excessive ball-milling time displayed low electrical conductivity due to the characteristic change of a conductive additive, leading to poor electrochemical performance. The mixing of an active material and a conductive additive played a crucial role in determining the electrochemical performance of EDLC electrode. The optimal ball-milling time contributed to a homogeneous mixing of an active material and a conductive additive, leading to good electrochemical performance of the EDLC electrode.

Carbonate-type organic electrolytes were prepared using propylene carbonate (PC) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) as a solvent, quaternary ammonium salts, and by adding different contents of 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMImBF4). Cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry were performed to analyze conducting behaviors. The surface characterizations were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy method and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. From the experimental results, increasing the EMImBF4 content increased the ionic conductivity and reduced bulk resistance and interfacial resistance. In particular, after adding 15 vol% EMImBF4 in 0.2 M SBPBF4 PC/DMC electrolyte, the organic electrolyte showed superior capacitance and interfacial resistance. However, when EMImBF4 content exceeded 15 vol%, the capacitance was saturated and the voltage range decreased.