Sustainable production of oxygen-rich hierarchically porous carbon network from corn straw lignin and silk degumming wastewater for high-performance electrochemical energy storage

Abstract

Herein, a clean, green, and sustainable strategy is presented to prepare a high-performance energy storage material, the sericin-lignin derived hierarchically porous carbon materials (SLHPCs). Extracted from biomass waste, corn straw lignin and sericin from silk degumming wastewater are endowed with a high added value. Combining the cross-linking reaction between lignin and sericin and the porogen role of sericin, the as-prepared SLHPC-2 possesses an advantageous pore structure, a high BET specific surface area (1948.4 m2 g−1) with a superior mesoporous area (598.6 m2 g−1). The high in-situ oxygen doping (14%) is simultaneously realized. It exhibits remarkable electrochemical properties and displays the universality in either alkali, acid, or neutral electrolytes as supercapacitor (SC) electrodes. The as-assembled symmetrical button-type SLHPC-based SC transmits a high energy density of 17.0 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 500.1 W kg−1 and retains 13.3 Wh kg−1 at 10.0 kW kg−1. The porogen role of sericin can be extended to be a universal fabrication of biomass wastes-based hierarchically porous carbon material. The proposed recycling strategy of biomass waste resources paves the way for new applications in energy storage.