Analysis of Characteristics of Activated Carbon from Cacao (Theobroma cacao) Skin Waste for Supercapasitor Electrodes

The production of activated carbon from the cacao (Theobroma cacao) skin waste was investigated to be used as a super capacitor electrode. This study was conducted in order to obtain the characteristics of the activated carbon electrodes of cacao skins. Activated carbon electrodes were made by a combination of chemical and physical activation methods. Samples were pre-carbonized at 250°C for 2.5 hours, whereas chemical activation was performed using KOH activators of 0.3M and 0.4M, with physical activation temperatures of 700°C, and the particle size of the activated carbon used is smaller than 38 µm. Then it was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), the CiklicVoltammetric (CV) method, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Hence, the analysis was carried out on the specific dimensions, density and capacitance. It was found that the mass, diameter, thickness, and density of the electrodes have decreased, and the specific capacitance of the electrodes has increased along with the increase in KOH concentration from 0.3 M to 0.4 M. The specific capacitance value at a concentration of 0.3 M was 90.2 F/gr with a density of 0.850gr/cm³ and a concentration of 0.4 M was 140.2 F/gr with a density of 0.802 gr/cm³. The X-ray diffraction curve data showed that the value of Lc and the lattice distance (d₀₀₂) of C0.4 samples was smaller than the C0.3 sample. From the obtained results, the surface area of the C0.4 sample was greater than the C0.3 sample. It was clear that the chemical activation of 0.4M produces electrodes with better performance than 0.3M.