Novel biomass-derived smoke-like carbon as a supercapacitor electrode material

Abstract

In this present work, smoke-like carbon was successfully fabricated from a bio-waste fungal substrate crude polysaccharide for the first time. The as-prepared products possess smoke-like structures, ultra-high specific surface area (SBET: 2160 m2 g−1) and a high content of micropores (microporous surface area of 60%, with a nanopore size of 0.70 nm), which can increase the specific capacitance, representing a wonderful structure for electrochemical energy storage devices. The as-prepared sample displayed an excellent specific capacitance of 152 F g−1 at 5 A g−1 in the three-electrode configuration and exhibited maximal densities of 6.8–10.2 W h kg−1 under power outputs of 253.4–24.3 kW kg−1. We believe that this work demonstrates a simple, green and low-cost route by using agricultural residue to prepare applicable carbon materials for use in energy storage devices.

Keywords

• biomass carbon
• supercapacitor
• energy storage devices
• polysaccharide
• fungal substrate