Performance studies of bamboo based nano activated carbon electrode material for supercapacitor applications

Abstract The vast majority of the activated carbons manufactured commercially, are supplied from non-renewable energy source based forerunner (oil and coal) which requires it to be costly and earth non-accommodating henceforth the expanding center around biomass precursors which are less expensive, promptly accessible, sustainable, fundamentally permeable and environmentally safe. Biomass-derived activated carbon material is essentially an unusual material that can be used for various applications such as wastewater treatment, cancer treatment, energy storage devices, and so on. This study aims to synthesize the nano activated carbon using Bamboo as the precursor under a Nitrogen atmosphere using KOH as an activating agent to increase the surface area and pore size properties of the electrode material. The microstructural and electrochemical characterization was carried out to know the structural morphology, crystallinity, and pore size of the particles. The surface area of synthesized 1273 m2/g, the average diameter of the pore is 1.92 nm and the pore volume of 0.6119 cm3/g was obtained using the Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) test. The surface morphology and crystallinity of bamboo activated carbon was obtained using the Scanning Electron Microscope and X-Ray Diffraction. The electrochemical characterization of the developed supercapacitor reveals that the highest specific capacitance of 143F/g was observed at 5 mV scan rate in 1 M KOH electrolyte. Using Galvanic Charge Discharge, the efficiency retention was determined and it is reduced to 70% after 25,000 cycles.