Rapid single-step synthesis of porous carbon from an agricultural waste for energy storage application

Abstract

Single-step synthesis of porous carbon (PC) from biomass is a challenge via microwave heating, because biomass rarely absorbs the microwave energy. Herein, wheat-straw-derived char, as a good microwave absorber, was used to achieve rapidly single-step synthesis of PC from an agricultural waste (wheat straw). KOH was used to generate abundant micropores in the PCs. High heating rate caused by microwave heating combined with the pyrolysis gases resulted in the formation of meso-/macropores. A series of post-oxidation reactions between active sites in the PCs and oxygen in the air led to the doping of oxygen-containing chemical groups. Consequently, the obtained PC possessed a high specific surface area of 1905 m2 g−1, a balanced pore distribution with abundant micropores (0.62 cm3 g−1), considerable content of meso-/macropores (0.53 cm3 g−1), and an oxygen-enriched structure (oxygen content up to 21.6%). These characteristics not only contributed to the achievement of a high specific capacitance of 268.5 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 for the resultant supercapacitor, but also resulted in an excellent rate capability with a high capacitance retention of 81.2% at 10 A g−1 in a gel electrolyte (polyvinyl alcohol/LiCl). This supercapacitor can extract a high energy density of 21.5 W h kg−1 at 0.5 A g−1 and a high power density of 7.2 kW kg−1 at 10 A g−1.