Development of Modified Mesoporous Carbon from Palm oil Biomass for Energy Storage Supercapacitor Application

Abstract

Energy storage system research including battery and supercapacitor devices has been studied to increase efficiency, lower their cost and improve environmental friendliness. Supercapacitor (SC) device offers high transient response and power density which suitable for many applications. The electrodes in supercapacitor device usually produced from highly porous carbon materials. In this study, the modified mesoporous carbon was produced from Palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) biomass. The production of mesoporous carbon was done using a low-temperature hydrothermal carbonization process. The mesoporous carbon from EFB biomass has shown good properties in terms of high surface area and porosity. To improve the electrical conductivity of the carbon the modification by nitrogen doping with ammonium chloride and urea was studied. The effect of different nitrogen sources on surface area and pore properties were reported. The modified mesopore carbon was tested in a symmetrical swagelok supercapacitor cell to evaluate the specific capacitance and efficiency using galvanostatic charge-discharge method. The modified mesoporous carbon with urea doped exhibits the highest specific capacitance of 121 F g-1 at current loading of 0.1 A g-1 in an aqueous 1M H2SO4 electrolyte. The modified mesoporous carbon with urea doped has lower internal resistance due to nitrogen from urea enhance the electronic conductivity of the electrodes and thus increase the supercapacitor performance.