비닐에틸렌 카보네이트(VEC: vinyl ethylene carbonate)를 전해질 첨가제로 사용했을 때 하이브리드 커패시터(hybrid capacitors) 전극에서 나타나는 전기화학적 특성변화에 대해서 고찰하였다. 하이브리드 커패시터는 양극은 활성탄(AC : activated carbon) 음극은 리튬티타늄옥사이드(LTO: $Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$)를 사용하였고, 전해질로서는 에틸렌 카보네이트(EC: ethylene carbonate): 디메틸 카보네이트 (DMC: dimethyl carbonate) : 에틸메틸 카보네이트(EMC : ethyl methyl carbonate)를 사용하였고, 염으로 육불화인산리튬($LiPF_6$: lithium hexafluoro phosphate)을 사용하였다. 전극 표면의 산소관능기 그룹을 제거하고, 표면을 환원시킴으로써 전극에 안정성을 향상시킨다고 알려진 VEC의 첨가량에 따른 전기화학적 특성을 평가하였으며, 0.7%(부피비)의 VEC첨가시, 가장 우수한 전기화학적 특성을 얻을 수 있었다. 0.7% 이상 첨가하였을 경우, 오히려 부반응 증가로 전기화학적 성능이 감소하였다. X-ray photoelectron spectrocopy (XPS) 결과로부터 LTO 전극에서 VEC가 첨가되지 않은 전해질에 비해 LiF가 감소한 것을 확인 할 수 있었다. VEC가 첨가되지 않은 전해질은 2500 사이클 후, 43.2 %의 용량 유지를 나타냈지만, 최적화된 VEC 첨가를 통하여 82.7 %의 높은 용량을 유지하는 특성을 가진 하이브리드 커패시터를 얻을 수 있었다.
We employed the vinyl ethylene carbonate (VEC) as an electrolyte additive and investigated the effect of the electrolyte additive on the electrochemical performance in hybrid capacitor. The activated carbon was adopted as cathode material, and the $Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$ oxide was used as anode material. The electrolyte was prepared with the $LiPF_6$ salt in the mixed solvent of ethylene carbonate (EC), dimethyl carbonate (DMC), and ethyl methyl carbonate(EMC). We evaluated the electrochemical performance of the hybrid capacitor with increasing the amount of the VEC electrolyte additive, which is known as the remover of oxygen functional group and the stabilizer of the electrode by reducing the surface of electrode, and obtained the superior performance data especially at the addition of the VEC electrolyte additive of around 0.7 vol%. On the contrary, the addition of the VEC more than 0.7 vol% in the electrolyte leads to the degradation in electrochemical performance of hybrid capacitor, suggesting the increase of the side reaction from the excessive VEC additive. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed that the addition of the VEC suppressed the formation of LiF component, which is known as the insulator, on the surface of electrode. The optimized addition of VEC exhibited the improved capacity retention around 82.7% whereas the bare capacitors without VEC additive showed the 43.2% of capacity retention after 2500 cycling test.
