Porous activated carbons derived from pleurotus eryngii for supercapacitor applications

Abstract

Varieties of natural biomass have been utilized to prepare porous carbon materials for supercapacitor applications. In this work, porous activated carbons derived from Pleurotus eryngii were prepared by carbonization and KOH activation. The activated carbons presented a large specific surface area of 3255 m2·g-1 with high porosity. The as-prepared electrode exhibited a maximal specific capacitance of 236 F·g-1 measured in a three-electrode cell system. Furthermore, the assembled symmetric supercapacitor showed a specific capacitance of 195 F·g-1 at 0.2 A·g-1 and a superior specific capacitance retention of about 93% after 15000 cycles. The desirable capacitive behavior suggests that Pleurotus eryngii is an attractive biomass source of carbon materials for the potential supercapacitor applications.