Waste Rambutan-Derived Porous Carbon Materials Applied to Supercapacitors

Abstract

The supercapacitor, as a novel energy storage device, possesses the advantages of rapid charging and discharging, extended cycle life, high power density, low energy density, excellent voltage resistance, large capacity, and more. Biomass serves as an ideal electrode material for supercapacitors due to its high carbon content, cost-effectiveness, and environmental friendliness. In this study, waste rambutan peel is utilized as the raw material and subjected to KOH activation following high-temperature pyrolysis to fabricate porous carbon materials with well-ordered pore size distribution. The rambutan peel electrode material exhibits a mass-specific capacitance of 285 F g-1 (at 1 A g-1 current density) and retains 105% after 5000 cycles of charge and discharge. This provides a direction for the reuse of biomass materials.