Biowaste-derived oxygen-self-doped three-dimensional interconnected porous carbon for electrochemical supercapacitor applications

Abstract

ABSTRACT Biowaste for producing a biomaterial is an inexpensive, profuse, widely available, and viable natural source and has been extensively investigated and applied in a wide range of research fields. In this work, jackfruit leaf waste as a biowaste source was utilized to prepare a three-dimensional (3D) interconnected porous carbon framework self-doped with oxygen by KOH impregnation, carbonization, and activation under a CO2 atmosphere. The as-prepared porous carbon has a 3D interconnected porous framework with a rich oxygen content of 36.82%, and high BET surface area of 455.687 m2 g−1 with a pore volume of 0.522 cm3 g−1. The 3D interconnected porous framework exhibits a high specific capacitance of 199 F g−1 with a maximum energy density of 27.64 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 99.60 W kg−1 at a sweep rate of 1 mV s−1 in a two-electrode setup. The correlation between structure and great performance of electrode materials is deeply studied. The great capacitive performance of porous carbon materials can be assigned to its 3D interconnected porous framework, high specific surface area, suitable pore size distributions, and advantageous heteroatom-doping, resulting in the rapid ion diffusion and sufficient charge storage along with the contributed pseudocapacitance behavior. Hence, the exciting results reveal an efficient, cost-effective, time-saving, and facile method to prepare 3D interconnected porous carbon frameworks self-doped with oxygen derived from natural biowaste sources for developing supercapacitor devices.