Title : Synthesis and performance study of biomass derived supercapacitor electrode for energy storage
Abstract:
The capabilities of biomass derived electrodes and their use in the field of energy storage is a promising area of research. Commercial (Industrial) activated carbon is expensive and has adverse effect on the environment. Switching from industry based activated carbon to biomass derived activated carbon is a cleaner approach without altering the performance of biomass derived supercapacitor electrode significantly. In the present study performance analysis of electrode derived from Mustard husk (MSH) has been conducted. MSH is converted in Mustard Husk Char (MSHC) through microwave pyrolysis. The synthesized MSHC needs to be characterized to confirm its suitability for energy storage applications. Characterization of MSH and MSHC is done using ultimate and proximate analysis, SEM, FTIR, TGA-DTG. Ultimate and proximate analysis confirms that the carbon content in MSHC is 58.55% while MSH contains 44.45 % carbon confirming that MSHC is more carbonaceous as compared to MSH. Higher carbon content is required for the electrode material. TGA of MSH and MSHC shows that thermal stability of MSHC is higher (upto 280 °C) than that of MSH (upto 232 °C). Higher thermal stability of MSHC implies that it will not degrade thermally at elevated temperatures. SEM analysis reveals substantial morphological transformations in MSH upon exposure to microwave radiation. FTIR analysis was used to identify functional groups and surface properties that contribute to improve the electrochemical performance. Electro-chemical study on MSHC derived electrode was conducted using three electrode system with the potential window of 0.0.0 - 0.8 V. Specific capacitance of MSHC derived electrode was calculated to be 244.50 F g−1. Charging-discharging cycle lowered the specific capacitance from 244.50 F g−1 to 110.62 F g-1.
