High supercapacitive performance of food waste extracted activated carbon

Abstract

Development of electrode materials from renewable sources is very important for reducing our dependence on non-renewable energy resources. Herein, we prepared porous structured activated carbon (AC) from food waste residue to develop a cost-effective method for fabricating carbon-based high-performance energy storage devices. Food waste-derived carbon was chemically activated using potassium hydroxide as activating agent. The as-synthesized AC was used for the fabrication of supercapacitor electrode. In the three-electrode system, it showed a maximum specific capacitance of 280 F/g at 1 A/g current density along with a good rate capability. Also, the capacitance retention was 96.1 % after 10,000 cycles, thus demonstrating an excellent cyclic stability. The energy density of the designed symmetric device was 6.7 Wh/kg with respect to a power density of 250 W/kg. The present work provided an eco-friendly, cost-effective and feasible method of designing high capacitance supercapacitor electrodes using sustainable biomass materials.