A novel study for supercapacitor applications via corona discharge modified activated carbon derived from Dunaliella salina microalgae

Abstract

Chemical activation factors including type of chemical agent and amount of agent, as well as carbonization procedures like burning temperature and burning time, have an impact on the surface characteristics of activated carbon. In this study, Dunaliella Salina microalgae was converted to supercapacitor electrode materials for the first time by using multiple parameters such as chemical agent, amount of chemical agent, burning temperature, and burning time, and then new electrode materials were obtained by applying different activation with the help of electrical corona discharge. Dunaliella Salina microalgae were used as activated carbon in accordance with the experimental protocol designed by the Taguchi L9 (3,4) technique. Specific capacitance values of each supercapacitor electrode material were subjected to a linear regression model to determine the effect of each parameter. It has been found that the parameter with the most significant positive effect on the specific capacitance value is the burning temperature. The surface properties of MAD-3, which has the best specific capacitance value of 284.86 F/g, were further improved by being exposed to corona discharge at different frequency values in a two-electrode system. The best specific capacitance value was measured as 335.23 F/g for the MAD-C50 under the condition that the frequency of the application voltage is 50 Hz. In addition, SEM-EDS, and XRD analyses were performed and BET measurements showed that the corona discharge method increased the pore volume and surface area of activated carbon more than 1.6 times.