Biowaste-originated heteroatom-doped porous carbonaceous material for electrochemical energy storage application

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiec.2021.03.037Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A novel BH-PCM was prepared from biowaste by a simple carbonization method.

  • As-synthesized BH-PCM exhibit Cs of 137 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 in 1 M H2SO4 solution.

  • This work demonstrates a discarded rubbish into electrode material for supercapacitors.

  • Besides, the useful hints for the disposal of biowaste and contribute to environmental cleaning.

Abstract

Here, a unique heteroatom-doped spongy carbonaceous material from dwarf banana peel has been synthesized successfully using the one-step hydrothermal method. The discarded banana peel was reused as a carbon source for the formation of heteroatom-doped porous carbon. This biowaste-derived heteroatom-doped porous carbonaceous material (BH-PCM) has plenty of interconnected pores with an acceptable surface area of 213 m2 g−1. Thoroughly characterized BH-PCM has been used as electrode material for supercapacitor using a three-electrode system with an aqueous 1 M H2SO4 solution. The as-synthesized BH-PCM holds an excellent specific capacitance of 137 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 and an impressive rate performance with a capacitance enduring 51 F g−1 at 5.0 A g−1. After 10,000 galvanostatic charge–discharge cycles, an initial capacitance of 94% was maintained. To show the practical applicability of the BH-PCM, the symmetrical two-electrode cell was fabricated and delivered the gravimetric specific capacitances of 87 F g−1 at 1 A g−1. The excellent electrochemical performance of BH-PCM towards supercapacitor was due to their high surface area, reasonable heteroatom doping rate, and a suitable degree of graphitization. This study offers a green approach for the development of environmental-friendly potential carbon-based electrode, by converting biowaste to clean/green energy.

Introduction

We are in urgent indeed of portable high-performance energy-storage devices because of the energy crisis and environmental pollution [1], [2], [3], [4]. Among the energy-storage devices, supercapacitors have attracted researchers because of their outstanding properties including high power density, fast charge–discharge, prolonged cycle stability life, safety, and environmentally friendly [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]. Usually, supercapacitors are classified as pseudocapacitors and electrochemical double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) through their energy-storage mechanisms [10], [11], [12]. Electrode materials are one of the most important components for the supercapacitors that affect performance and large-scale applications. Hence, the researcher focusing the appropriate electrode materials for the high-performance supercapacitors. Generally, transition metal oxides, conducting polymeric materials, and carbonaceous materials were used as electrode materials [13]. At present, in supercapacitors, carbonaceous materials such as fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, graphene, carbon nanofibers, carbon aerogels, and porous carbon are widely used as electrode materials [14], [15]. While they have unique features such as inexpensive, abundant in nature, high surface area, enrich in pore structure, easy surface modification, excellent chemical stability, and the operating mechanism of EDLC [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21]. In the EDLC mechanism, the specific capacitance (Cs) value of the supercapacitor is controlled by the charges stored at the surface of the electrode material [22], [23]. Carbonaceous materials with high surface areas showed high capacity at the electrode-electrolyte interfaces [24]. Among the various carbonaceous materials mentioned above, carbonaceous materials derived from the biowaste/biomass attained great attention among researchers. Biowaste is renewable and is the most abundant resource on the earth. Further, they are cost-effective and are environmentally friendly as compared to coal and petroleum-derived carbon materials [3], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30]. But, these carbon-based supercapacitors endure lower energy-storage and rate capability. Thus the widespread research works have shown that the performances of energy-storage for carbonaceous materials derived from biomass are strongly leaned on their structures [31]. The porous materials show promising results and therefore, biowaste/biomass-derived porous carbonaceous materials may be an option to achieve effective surface area, for heteroatom doping, and surface/structure morphology for high energy-storage devices [32].

Herein, we have developed heteroatom-doped porous carbonaceous material from the waste banana peel (biowaste) by the carbonization method. The resulting biowaste-derived heteroatom-doped porous carbonaceous material (BH-PCM) has been thoroughly characterized using nitrogen physisorption isotherms, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), High-resolution TEM (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. This novel BH-PCM was employed as an active electrode material for supercapacitors which showed an outstanding electrochemical double-layer capacitance (EDLC) with prolonged cycling stability. Promising electrochemical performances of the BH-PCM were owing to the doping of heteroatom (nitrogen and oxygen) and the large surface area of BH-PCM with mesoporous nature. The present work has been compared with recent reports about carbon-based materials for supercapacitors to determine the superiority of the synthesized BH-PCM. Moreover, this work proposes an economical and simple method to transform the biowaste into a heteroatom-doped porous carbon composite for environmentally friendly energy-storage applications.

Section snippets

Synthesis of BH-PCM

Dwarf banana peels were collected in wet-condition (food-waste/biowaste) and cut into small pieces subsequently, dried at room temperature for 2 days (48 h) under ambient condition. In a simple horizontal tubular furnace gas flow control units, dried waste banana peels were charred in the argon atmosphere at 800 °C for 2 h. In a typical growth experiment, ca. 5 g dried waste banana peel was placed in a quartz boat inside a quartz tube (Length and diameter of the tube are around 1000 mm and 60 mm,

Physicochemical characterization of BH-PCM

The morphology of BH-PCM from dwarf banana peel was illustrated by FESEM. The FESEM images with different magnifications of the BH-PCM (Fig. 1(a–i)) showed a three-dimensional aerogel network structure of smooth surface with disordered pores. Such pore structures are favorable for the successive electrochemical applications due to the high internal permeability of electrolytes into the porous structure of BH-PCM. Fig. 2(a–e) displays the FESEM images and the corresponding elemental mapping of

Conclusions

A novel BH-PCM was synthesized successfully from waste dwarf banana peel by the facile one-step carbonization for energy-storage applications. The structural characterization and chemical composition analysis indicates that the BH-PCM possesses a microporous/mesoporous structure with a reasonable BET surface area, acceptable heteroatom doping, and a suitable degree of graphitization/crystallization. The as-synthesized BH-PCM displays a high Cs of 137 F g−1 at the CUD of 0.5 A g−1 in an aqueous 1 M H2

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (2012M3A7B4049677), the Ministry of Science, Information and Communications Technology (MSIT) (2017R1C1B5076345), and the MSIT (2018R1A2B2004432).

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    Supporting information: materials, instrumentation methods, fabrication of working electrode, electrochemical measurements, XRD pattern, XPS survey spectrum, surface area analysis, and electrochemical performance of the synthesized BH-PCM.

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    Authors contributed equally to this work.

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