Refuse derived energy - tea derived boric acid activated carbon as an electrode material for electrochemical capacitors

Abstract

Based on the energy form waste concepts we present here our results of the study of utilizing waste tea dust for preparing carbon, called the biocarbon. Tea dust after decocting has been selected as a low cost source of producing the carbon. Un-activated and activated carbons are produced by heating the tea waste around 250 °C for 2 h. For the first time, boric acid (H3BO3) has been reported through this work as a chemical agent for activating the selected biowaste. After physical characterization, the biocarbons have been tested in 3M KOH electrolyte solution for the possible application as electrodes in electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLCs). Cyclic voltammetric studies with boric acid activated carbon of tea show slight improvement in the capacitance values over un-activated tea derived carbon. The study suggests that boric acid may be used as an activating agent for producing activated carbons.