Activation of biomass precursors and chemical preparation of hierarchical porous carbons for supercapacitor applications

Abstract

Growing population in the world demands more accumulation of energy. Among the storage devices, capacitors have triggered enormous interest due to its excellent electrochemical characteristics. Activated carbon electrodes from Africana Duranta, Tectona Grandis, and Terminalia Catappa carbon waste, have attracted high interest because of high specific surface area and an abundant pore volume with rational micro/meso pores. The carbon black samples were prepared by a simple green synthesis with KOH treatment followed by pyrolysis method. XRD confirmed the amorphous carbon black allotrope of the carbon black respectively. The carbon obtained from the leaf, Africana Duranta showed high surface area in the range of 9.08 m²/g - 28.592 m²/g with pore radius in the range of 16.768 Å – 877.4509 Å, which was found from BJH and BET analysis respectively. Then the specific capacitance values were calculated from the CV curves using electrochemical analyzer. The highest specific capacitance value of 83.58 Fg-1 was found for Africana Duranta, which was mainly due to high surface area compared to other two leaves.