Pinecone biomass-derived activated carbon: the potential electrode material for the development of symmetric and asymmetric supercapacitors

Activated carbon, from biomass (pinecone), was synthesized by conventional pyrolysis/chemical activation process and utilized for the fabrication of supercapacitor electrodes. The pinecone-activated carbon synthesized with 1:4 ratio of KOH (PAC4) showed an increase in surface area and pore density with a considerable amount of oxygen functionalities on the surface. Moreover, PAC4, as supercapacitor electrode, exhibited excellent electrochemical performances with specific capacitance value ∼185 Fg⁻¹ in 1 M H₂SO₄, which is higher than that of nonactivated pinecone carbon and 1:2 ratio KOH-based activated carbon (PAC2) (∼144 Fg⁻¹). The systematic studies were performed to design various forms of devices (symmetric and asymmetric) to investigate the effect of device architecture and operating voltage on the performance and stability of the supercapacitors. The symmetric supercapacitor, designed utilizing PAC4 in H₂SO₄ electrolyte, exhibited a maximum device-specific capacitance of 43 Fg⁻¹ with comparable specific energy/power and excellent stability (∼96% after 10 000 cycles). Moreover, a symmetric supercapacitor was specially designed using PAC4, as a positive electrode, and PAC2, as a negative electrode, under their electrolytic ion affinity, and which operates in aqueous Na₂SO₄ electrolyte for a wide cell voltage (1.8 V) and showed excellent supercapacitance performances. Also, a device was assembled with poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) (PEDOT) nanostructure, as positive electrode, and PAC4, as a negative electrode, to evaluate the feasibility of designing a hybrid supercapacitor, using polymeric nanostructure, as an electrode material along with biomass-activated carbon electrode.