Facile synthesis of micro/mesoporous functional carbon from Turbinaria conoides seaweed for high performance of supercapacitors

Abstract

In this present work, functional carbon was prepared by direct pyrolysis method followed by carbonization process from the dried seaweeds Turbinaria conoides (TC) without any activation and performed for the application of supercapacitors. This technique is applicable to most of the dried biomass. The synthesized functional conducting carbon was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Raman spectroscopy (RAMAN), field emission scanning microscopy (FE-SEM), Transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) methods. The synthesized functional carbon electrode materials were also tested by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge and discharge (CD), Impedance analysis in aqueous electrolyte (1 M H2SO4) and for cycle stability performance. By using three electrode systems, the electrode material of TC-700 shows best capacitance performance of 416F/g when compared to other samples of dried TC-800 and 900. The dried seaweed TC-700 based supercapacitor exhibits a high energy density 52 Wh/kg at a power density of 104 W/kg and still maintains at 27 Wh/kg at a high power density of 520.8 W/kg in 1 M H2SO4. These findings of the result suggest a simple approach without any chemical activation to produce micro or mesoporous functional carbon prepared with TC seaweed as a natural source precursor with high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors.