High potential of yellow potato (Solanum Tuberosum L.) peel waste as porous carbon source for supercapacitor electrodes

Abstract

Yellow potato peel contains chemical components such as protein, fiber, starch and sugar which is composed atom carbon chains bonding. Heating potato peel at high temperatures can disrupt the bonding of the carbon atoms of the constituents, vaporizing volatile compounds, thereby producing high carbon fixed. This study preparation yellow potato peel-based carbon electrodes through a single-stage integrated pyrolysis with carbonization from room temperature to 600 °C in N2 gas atmosphere followed by physical activation to a temperature of 850°C in CO2 gas environment. The impregnation of ZnCl2 at different concentrations was optimized as an independent variable precursor to produce porous activated carbon for energy storage devices. The difference in concentration of 0.1M, 0.3M and 0.5M ZnCl2 can increase the porosity, structure of amorphous carbon and the resulting high electrochemical performance. Electrochemical properties were characterized using cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge discharge methods in an aqueous electrolyte of 1M H2SO4 at a voltage of 0-1000 mV and a scanning rate of 1 mV s−1. Furthermore, the resulting specific capacitance increased from 82.82 F g−1, 195.66 F g−1 and 147.03 F g−1 based on the effect of the concentration of the chemical activator ZnCl2. While the specific capacitance obtained using the GCD method shows higher numbers, namely 145.13 F g−1, 223.25 F g−1 and 174.08 F g−1. Energy density 27.18 Wh kg−1 and power density 97.93 W kg−1 from cv method. The simple approach of activated carbon from potato peel waste is expected to produce an economical and simple porous carbon electrode for high performance energy storage application.