Easy approach to synthesize N/P/K co-doped porous carbon microfibers from cane molasses as a high performance supercapacitor electrode material

Abstract

In this study, we demonstrate a simple and low cost method to synthesize N/P/K co-doped porous carbon microfibers (CMFs) from a sugar-rich byproduct (cane molasses) as the precursor material. A two-step method for the synthesis of N/P/K co-doped porous CMFs involving electrospinning of precursor material followed by simple carbonization at various temperatures (773.15-1173.15 K) was successfully applied. The N/P/K co-doped porous CMFs exhibited high specific surface area ($580 m 2 g À1 ) andhierarchical porous structure. The potential application of N/P/K co-doped porous CMFs as supercapacitor electrodes was investigated in a two-electrode configuration employing aqueous K 2 SO 4 solution and ionic liquids/acetonitrile (ILs/ACN) mixtures as the electrolytes. A series of electrochemical measurements include cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge and cycling durability all confirmed that the CMF-1073.15 supercapacitor exhibited good electrochemical performance with a specific capacitance of 171.8 F g À1 at a current load of 1 A g À1 measured in 1.5 M tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TEABF 4 )/ACN electrolyte, which can be charged and discharged up to a cell potential of 3.0 V. The specific energy density and power density of 53.7 W h kg À1 and 0.84 kW kg À1 were achieved. Furthermore, the CMF-1073.15 supercapacitor showed excellent cycling performance with capacitance retention of nearly 91% after 2500 charge-discharge cycles, characterizing its electrochemical robustness and stable capacitive performance.

Sugarcane molasses as a pseudocapacitive material for supercapacitors

“…25 The breakdown of polysaccharide molecules is probably produced until $600 C (18.1 wt% mass loss), as indicated by the continuous weight loss observed in the TG curve, in agreement with a previous study on sugarcane molasses. 26 In addition, this latter work indicated that the weight loss was negligible from 500 to 700 C and that no weight loss was observed up to 900 C. 26 In contrast, our TG/ DTG curves presented two steps between $600 and 758 C and above 758 C with no negligible weight loss values of 3.6 and 7.4 wt%, respectively. Such unexpected stages appearing above 600 C will be explained in detail hereinaer.…”

“…Capacitance values of $172 F g À1 at 1 A g À1 current density were reported in a former work, in which electrospun carbon microbres obtained from cane molasses and 1.5 M tetraethyl ammonium tetrauoroborate in acetonitrile electrolyte were used. 26 M-750 and M-900 carbons exhibited specic capacitance values of $13 and 9 F g À1 , respectively, at the same current density, but their surface areas were considerably lower (8 and 102 m 2 g À1 , respectively) than those of the electrospun carbon bres (580 m 2 g À1 ) and different electrolytes were also used.…”

CN foam loaded with few-layer graphene nanosheets for high-performance supercapacitor electrodes

“…[1][2] The key part of a supercapacitor is the electrode material, which predominantly depends the charge storage performance. [5][6][7][8][9][10] During the past several years, various carbon materials, including activated carbon, [11][12][13] carbon nanotubes, [14][15][16] and graphene, [17][18][19][20] have been investigated for use in supercapacitors. Carbon-based materials are not only used in electrochemical double layer capacitors for charge storage, but also employed in pseudocapacitors for improving the conductivity.…”

Electrical conductivity, ion-molecular and interionic interactions in solutions of some tetraalkylammonium salts in acetonitrile: the influence of the ion and temperature

“…The rest of the solutions were prepared by diluting the concentrated solution by mass taking into account Archimedes force correction. Molar concentrations of solutions prepared were calculated by the equation (1).…”

“…Non-aqueous electrolyte solutions are widely used in electrochemical energy storage devices, such as supercapacitors (SCs) with porous nano-carbon electrodes [1]. Non-aqueous solutions of tetraalkylammonium salt-based electrolytes were used to test samples of porous carbon electrodes in SCs [2].…”