Modified activation process for supercapacitor electrode materials from African maize cob

Kigozi, Moses, Kali, Ravi, Bello, Abdulhakeem, Padya, Balaji, Kalu-Uka, Godwin Mong, Wasswa, John, Jain, Pawan Kumar, Onwualu, Peter Azikiwe and Dzade, Nelson Yaw ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7733-9473 2020. Modified activation process for supercapacitor electrode materials from African maize cob. Materials 13 (23) , 5412. 10.3390/ma13235412

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Abstract

In this work, African maize cobs (AMC) were used as a rich biomass precursor to synthesize carbon material through a chemical activation process for application in electrochemical energy storage devices. The carbonization and activation were carried out with concentrated Sulphuric acid at three different temperatures of 600, 700 and 800 °C, respectively. The activated carbon exhibited excellent microporous and mesoporous structure with a specific surface area that ranges between 30 and 254 m2·g−1 as measured by BET analysis. The morphology and structure of the produced materials are analyzed through Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Boehm titration, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman Spectroscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicates that a considerable amount of oxygen is present in the materials. The functional groups in the activated carbon enhanced the electrochemical performance and improved the material’s double-layer capacitance. The carbonized composite activated at 700 °C exhibited excellent capacitance of 456 F g−1 at a specific current of 0.25 A g−1 in 6 M KOH electrolyte and showed excellent stability after 10,000 cycles. Besides being a low cost, the produced materials offer good stability and electrochemical properties, making them suitable for supercapacitor applications.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Chemistry
Additional Information:	This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Publisher:	MDPI
ISSN:	1996-1944
Funders:	EPSRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	10 December 2020
Date of Acceptance:	20 November 2020
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 11:19
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/136930

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