Electrochemical Performances of Metal-Doped Activated Carbon Compounds Derived from Shrimp Shell Waste

The conversion of biowaste into carbon materials has attracted much interest. The future hope of the research lies in high-energy storage from activated carbon (AC)-based materials. Hence, the electrochemical performance of minimum-capacity metal-incorporated activated carbon has been analyzed. The abundantly available natural biopolymer, chitosan, possesses versatile properties holding enormous applications. Chitosan is restructured into activated carbon, and the enhanced properties can meet the potential of electrochemical performance. Various characterization techniques were used to analyze the synthesized AC/metal composites. The sample produced is in the amorphous phase with porous morphology. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis showed that the inclusion of metal nanoparticles in AC is less in quantity, but field-emission scanning electron. microscopy showed an observable change on the surface. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy showed that the prepared composite particles were rod-shaped with nanoscale dimensions. The electrochemical experimental results suggest that the carbon composite samples have superior specific capacitance with respect to the scan rates.