Novel Method to Prepare Activated Carbon Nanomaterials from Defunct Leaves

In this work, we collected the dead Eucalyptus tereticornis (Forest red gum) and Azadirachta indica (Neem) leaves, then washed, dried, powdered, mixed in equal proportionate and fired in high-temperature muffle furnace up to 750°C for 6hrs. The resultant mesoporus nano-carbon powders are then characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Analysis X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDAX) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) method. The structural morphologies of the various samples were studied using SEM. The calcium content increased as inferred from the EDAX analysis, as the temperature of the firing increased to 750°C. The prepared activated carbon nanoparticles were confirmed with XRD to be the carbon-based nanocomposites such as calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ), magnesium carbonate (MgCO 3 ) and non-carbon-based nanocomposites such as enstatite (MgSiO 3 ) and diopside (CaMgSi 2 O 6 ). These results were promising for the supercapacitors in powering bio-medical device applications.