Identification of Cacao Peels Potential as a Basic of Electrodes Environmental Friendly Supercapacitors

Abstract

Identification of the potential of cacao peel as the basic material of environmentally friendly supercapacitor electrodes had been identified. This identification was carried out through analysis of specific dimensions, densities, and capacitances. Activated carbon electrodes were made by a combination of chemical and physics activation methods. The technique of preparing carbon electrodes started from pre-carbonization, milling, chemical activation, pellet making, carbonization, and completed it with physics activation. In addition, the chemical activation applied 0.3 M KOH activator, whereas the physical activation used CO2 gas at a temperature of 700°C. The physical properties were tested by density and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dipersive X-Ray (EDX). While the electrochemical properties were tested using the Ciclic Voltammetric (CV) method. The results showed that the mass, diameter, thickness, and density of the electrode decreased after passing the carbonization-activation process. A value of 2θ in the range of 23,569o for the reflection fields 002 and 44,781o for the reflection field 100 was obtained in the XRD measurements . The X-ray diffraction curve pointed out that the surface area of C 0,3 M sample was sizeable with the Lc value and lattice distance d002 around 20,01669 Å and 3,771705 Å. SEM analysis indicated the presence of pores between particles spread almost evenly on the surface of the sample, with an irregular and elongated shape. EDX testing showed carbon element of 87.05% while atomic percentage of 91.02%, and correspondently, electrochemical test showed the value of specific capacitance obtained at a concentration of 0.3 M was 90.2 F/gr with a density of 0.850gr/cm3. From the results of the tests obtained, it was shown that cacao peels was very potential to be used as electrodes for supercapacitors.