Synthesis and Evaluation of Bamboo-Based Activated Carbon as an Electrode Material for Electric Double Layer Capacitor

Abstract

Activated carbon (ACMn) with unique micro-, meso-, and macro-structures has been successfully synthesized using bamboo powder by KMnO4 activation and pyrolysis carbonization through a one-step strategy. The characteristics and electrochemical performance of the carbon as electrode material for supercapacitors were studied by SEM, TEM, EDX, XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, FTIR and CV measurement. The results showed that the ACMn possesses a porous structure with an efficient specific surface area of 915 m2/g and plenty of micropores. Electrochemical measurements revealed that ACMn electrode exhibited a high specific capacitance of 225 F/g at the potential scan rates of 2 mV/s. With the increase of potential scan rate, the specific capacitance of based ACMn based electrode tends to decrease. Compared with ACk (activated by KOH) based electrode, the decreasing tendency of ACMn-based electrode is clearly slower. The supercapacitor performance observed is owing to the unique combination of pore structure, it improved both storage capacity and transport behavior. In addition, the electrode has high performance which can be proved by a great variety of surface functional groups, that can improve its electrical conductivity and wettability.