Electrochemical investigations on low cost KOH activated carbon derived from orange-peel and polyaniline for hybrid supercapacitors

Abstract This paper presents a comparative study of electrode materials for supercapacitors concerning biomass centered orange peel derived activated carbon (OPAC), and Polyaniline-OPAC nanocomposite. OPAC was synthesized via a chemical activation technique under the nitrogen atmosphere. The BET studies of OPAC show a promising candidate for supercapacitors applications, which provided a high surface area of 904 m2g-1, an average volume of pores of 0.5543 cm3g-1, and an average diameter of pores of 2.19 nm. XRD studies confirm the synthesis of OPAC and PANI-OPAC nanocomposite. The PANI-OPAC nanocomposite electrode exhibits a specific capacitance of 427 Fg-1 however merely OPAC electrode exhibited 144 Fg-1 at a scan rate of 2mVs-1 by Cyclic Voltammetry in 1 M KOH electrolyte. OPAC electrode exhibited capacitance retention of 72 % whereas the nanocomposite exhibited retention of 75 % after 5000 cycles.