Synthesis and characterization of novel nitrogen doped biocarbons from distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) for supercapacitor applications

Abstract

Nitrogen doped biocarbon materials were effectively synthesised from distiller's dried grains with solubles (DDGS) using urea as the nitrogen source. The use of urea in the pre-treatment of DDGS on the fixation of elemental nitrogen in the biocarbon materials was investigated. Urea addition increases the nitrogen content in the obtained biocarbon, which is found to have 9.28 ± 0.67% for the DDGS:Urea weight ratio of 1:3. Physicochemical properties of the intrinsic and nitrogen doped biocarbon material were investigated by employing Raman and BET surface area analysis. Nitrogen rich biocarbon obtained using the DDGS:Urea weight ratio of 1:3 was taken for the fabrication of an electrochemical double layer capacitor. The fabricated symmetric supercapacitor with 2-electrode configuration showed the specific capacitance of 49.7 F·g−1 and 100.7 F·g−1 respectively for the intrinsic and nitrogen doped carbon materials at a current density of 0.5 A·g−1.