Carbon-based structures for electrodes: from synthesis to simulations. An overview.

Electrodes are one of the fundamental components in any system that aims to utilise and harness the energy and flux of electrons. Whether we are talking about energy storage systems, supercapacitors or simple transistor circuits, electrodes are required to allow the collection and movement of electric current. In recent decades, among the various materials used in the manufacture of electrodes, carbon has been one of the increasingly popular elements, due to the versatility of structures that can be realised and the numerous advantages in terms of cost and control of parameters affecting performance. After introducing the description and characterisation of supercapacitors as harvesting devices, this thesis work sets itself the task of analysing the various carbon-based electrode structures, examining the characteristic parameters and their impact on the devices involved, investigating the simulative and experimental methods used in their realisation, in order to obtain an overview of the state of the art and future technological prospects.