Simultaneous synthesis of carbon quantum dots and porous carbon using one step hydrothermal method for supercapacitor applications

Abstract

The present work reports a one-step hydrothermal carbonization process used to simultaneously produce carbon quantum dots and porous carbon. The synthesized materials were characterized by using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) to study the chemical interactions, the optical properties were studied with the help of UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, and the morphology analysis of CQDs and porous carbon was examined using FESEM, in which spherical morphology confirms the formation of CQDs, while XRD confirms the amorphous nature of the porous carbon. The application of CQDs and porous materials is evaluated as a supercapacitor material by using the cyclic voltammetry technique. The specific capacitance of porous carbon was 161.33 Fg −1 at 0.01mVs −1 scan rate. This makes CQDs and porous carbon a promising candidate for applications in energy storage devices such as supercapacitors.