Investigations on porous carbon derived from sugarcane bagasse as an electrode material for supercapacitors

The porous carbon is prepared utilizing the sugarcane bagasse via pre-treatment process using chemical agents like K2CO3, KOH and NaOH, followed by carbonization at 650 degrees C. The non-pre-treated (NPSB) and pre-treated (PSB1, PSB2, PSB3) samples were prepared. The resulting pre-treated carbon shows the increment in specific surface area from 476 to 725 m(2) g(-1), which is further examined for electrochemical performances. The highest specific capacitance was recorded of 241 Fg(-1) at 10 mVs(-1) and 265 Fg(-1) at 0.2 Ag-1 for the pre-treated K2CO3 sample (PSB1) from Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) and Galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) measurements, respectively. The efficiency of 98.63% shows almost constant specific capacitance up to 15,000 cycles for the PSB1 sample. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) curve of PSB1 sample shows the decrease in equivalent series resistance (ESR) from 3.54 to 1.76 51 with improved electrical conductivity. It has been found that the PSB1 sample has preserved the moderate specific energy of 6.26 WhKg(-1) with a specific power of 234 WKg(-1). The above results show that porous carbon derived from sugarcane bagasse can be utilized as an electrode material for energy storage devices.