Supercapacitive performance of porous carbon materials derived from tree leaves

Abstract

In recent years, porous biomass carbon has become a new functional material used as an absorbent and an electrode material. In this study, we present an organic waste conversion achieved through a two-step process: first, fallen phoenix tree leaves were transformed into carbon microspheres via the hydrothermal method; second, a porous carbon material was prepared from these carbon microspheres through an activation process using KOH. The carbon microspheres were analyzed by using several characterization methods, including X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method. The porous carbon material exhibited excellent supercapacitive performance with specific capacitances of 367 F/g at a current density of 0.5 A/g and 240 F/g at a current density of 20 A/g. The capacitance retention of the material was 91.7% after 2000 charge/discharge cycles at a current density of 20 A/g.