Preparation of Boron/Sulfur-Codoped Porous Carbon Derived from Biological Wastes and Its Application in a Supercapacitor

Abundant biomass resources are a good choice for preparing electrode materials for supercapacitors, but developing a versatile and simple synthetic method to convert them into electrode materials remains a challenge. In the present research, our team reports a promising strategy and cost-efficient method to fabricate boron/sulfur-codoped porous carbon from biomass sources, mainly utilizing four biomass materials. Detailed material characterization showed that the samples produced by this approach possess rich B and S doping. Additionally, the original biomass materials treated by activation produce abundant pores. Therefore, owing to the synergetic effect of abundant atomic doping and microporous/mesoporous distribution, the obtained carbon as electrode material manifested excellent specific capacitances of 290 F g(-1) at a 0.5 A g(-1) current density. Moreover, the specific energy of the prepared samples of the as-assembled symmetric supercapacitor is as high as 16.65 Wh kg(-1) in 1 M Na2SO4, with a brilliant cyclical performance of only a 2.91% capacitance decay over 10,000 cycles. In addition, it has been verified universally that three other types of bio-wastes can also prepare electrode material using this method. This paper represents a significant attempt to turn waste biomass into treasure while also providing ideas for the design and preparation of supercapacitor electrode materials.

Automated summary

In this research, a promising and cost-efficient method to fabricate boron/sulfur-codoped porous carbon from biomass sources was developed. The obtained carbon exhibited excellent specific capacitance and specific energy, as well as excellent cyclic performance. Furthermore, this method could also be applied to other types of biomass waste.