Abstract
In this paper, carbon/zinc oxide (LC/ZnO) composites were successfully synthesized and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman, thermogravimetry, and N2 adsorption–desorption, and tested by electrochemical performance. Studies have shown that the morphology of LC/ZnO composites is that lignin pellets are embedded in ZnO microplates. The lignin carbon in the composites mainly exists in an amorphous structure, and the specific surface area and pore channels of metal oxides are increased by the presence of lignin carbon. The electrochemical performance test shows that the carbonization temperature of LC/ZnO with the highest specific capacitance is 550 °C, and the capacitance retention rate reaches 96.74% after 1000 cycles of testing, indicating that the composite material has good cycle stability. Compared with the control group, it is found that the specific capacitance of LC/ZnO-550 °C is 2.3 times and 1.8 times that of ZnO-550 °C and LC-550 °C, respectively. This shows that during the electrochemical test, the lignin carbon and the metal oxide promote each other and act synergistically. In addition, the composite material exhibits the characteristics of a pseudo-capacitance capacitor, indicating that the redox reaction occurred in the electrochemical performance test.
Highlights
With the rapid development of the economy, the increasing level of industrialization, and the rapid growth of population, the existing resources developed by humankind have reached an unprecedented level, which has caused various problems such as waste of resources and environmental pollution
As a largely agricultural country, China produces about 50 million tons of industrial lignin every year [1,2], but more than 95% of the industrial lignin is not recycled effectively; it is directly discharged into water bodies, causing environmental pollution and waste of resources [3]
Li et al prepared supercapacitor electrode materials by using activated carbon derived from walnut shell and zinc oxide, and the results showed that the specific capacitance of the composite material was 117.4 F/g, which basically remained stable after 1000 cycle tests [25]
Summary
With the rapid development of the economy, the increasing level of industrialization, and the rapid growth of population, the existing resources developed by humankind have reached an unprecedented level, which has caused various problems such as waste of resources and environmental pollution. These problems threaten the natural environment that humankind depends on for survival and restricts the economic development of all countries in the world. Supercapacitors ( known as electrochemical capacitors), as a kind of energy storage devices with high power, fast charging and discharging performance, and long cycle life, are widely used in various aspects [5,6,7,8,9,10,11] such as hybrid electric vehicles, digital communication equipment, storage backup system, smart power grid, energy development, electronic products, etc
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