Modified Biomass Carbons for Electrochemical Capacitor Electrodes

The demand for energy storage devices has led to the increased development of cost-effective and sustainable electrode materials for electrochemical capacitors (ECs). This project investigated low-cost biomass waste pinecone to produce activated carbon (AC) and biochar in comparison with commercial coconut shell-based AC (YP-50F) as EC electrode materials. Pinecone-based AC produced via KOH chemical activation demonstrated a gravimetric capacitance of 214 F g-1¬ (at 50 mV s-1 in acidic media). Biochar (Flashed pinecone) synthesized without KOH showed a good capacitive performance at the same rate. Nitrogen doping was used to introduce pseudocapacitance in both ACs and led to an improvement in gravimetric capacitance at 50 mV s-1 for doped YP-50F (154 F g-1). Good rate capacitance retention was achieved in doped YP-50F (62.5 %), doped pinecone-based AC (60.0 %), and Flashed PC (78.1 %). This showed the promise of pinecone as a feedstock for low-cost, sustainable electrode materials.M.A.S