Coniferous pine biomass: A novel insight into sustainable carbon materials for supercapacitors electrode

Abstract

Highlights• Sustainable carbon materials from pine cone biomass.• Hydrothermal treatment of the pine cone to produce hydrochar.• KOH activation and carbonization of the hydrochar to produce porous carbons.• Symmetric supercapacitor based on the porous carbon exhibit good electrochemical performance. Graphical abstract ABSTRACTLow-cost biomass-derived activated porous carbon from natural pine cones is synthesized using hydrothermal approach followed by KOH activation and carbonization. The produced carbon materials have a high surface area of 1515 m 2 g -1 with a well-developed 2 meso/micropores structure which is advantageous and favorable for mass transfer and ion accommodation for fast rate performance by providing pathways for electrolyte permeation and contact probability. Symmetric device fabricated using the obtained carbon material as electrode, exhibited good electrochemical performance with no degradation of capacitance after voltage holding at 1 V for about 60 h demonstrating good rate capability of the fabricated device. The results demonstrate the exciting potential of the pine cone derived carbons as a promising candidate for high-performance electrode materials for supercapacitors if fully explored.

Hydrothermal Carbonization: Modeling, Final Properties Design and Applications: A Review

“…A review of the research in this field shows that KOH is, by far, the most used activating agent for enhancing porosity development in HCs in order to improve their supercapacitor performance [98][99][100][101][102], providing a better porosity develpment as compared to other chemical agents such as H 3 PO 4 or NaOH [103]. This compound can successfully develop the HC incipient porosity by means of the Reaction (1), followed by K 2 CO 3 decomposition into K 2 O or its reaction with carbon.…”

“…Manyala et al [98] investigated the use of pine cone HCs. The HCs were prepared following an acetone and distilled water washing, then H 2 SO 4 assisted HTC at 160 • C, and finally KOH chemical activation (600-900 • C).…”

Enhancing capacitance of supercapacitor with both organic electrolyte and ionic liquid electrolyte on a biomass-derived carbon

“…14,19 Unlike the synthetic polymer or other synthetic carbon material, it is facile and cost effective to use the renewable nature resources, woody biomass, as the activation precursors. [26][27][28] The major drawback of using the biomass precursor is the reproducibility among each production batch. Pine tree sawdust powder, a woody biomass, is a common waste in the lumberyards and woodworking shops around the world.…”

“…The activated pine tree powder has been used for waste removal from the aqueous solution 29,30 and electrode material of the SC. 26 In this work, we explore a facile method for synthesis and treatment of highly porous carbon with rich mesopores from pine tree powder, as cost effective and high performance electrodes in SCs. The pore size and distribution are manipulated to achieve superior capacitive performance, excellent rate capability and good stability in both tetraethylammonium tetrauoroborate/ acetonitrile (TEABF 4 /AN) organic electrolyte and the 1-ethyl-3methylimidazolium tetrauoroborate (EMIMBF 4 ) IL electrolyte.…”

Biomass-derived carbon materials with structural diversities and their applications in energy storage

“…Recently, the HTC of biomass precursors, including eucalyptus sawdust [160], fungi [117,161], papyrifera bark [162], pine cones [163], tobacco rods [125], and bagasse [113], has been extensively explored for the preparation of carbon materials at 180-250°C, owing to its simplicity, cost-effective and nonpollution [164]. The chemical reaction involved in the HTC process comprises five steps: hydrolysis, dehydration, decarboxylation, polymerization, and aromatization [30].…”