Preparation and Performance Optimization of Bacterial Slag-Based Activated Carbon Considering Hardness and Electrical Properties

To produce carbon materials with superior performance for supercapacitors, the study was conducted to prepare activated carbon based on penicillin waste bacterial residue with superior hardness and electrical properties by KOH activation method. During the production process, it was considered that the pore structure and electrical properties of activated carbon were greatly related to the activation temperature and impregnation ratio. Therefore, the study was conducted to experimentally analyze the optimum activation temperature and the optimum impregnation ratio in this production process, so as to further optimize the performance of this bacterial residue-based activated carbon. The results showed that the activated carbon samples with an activation temperature of 700 ◦C and an impregnation ratio of 3.0:1 had a maximum surface area and microporous area of 956 m^2/g and 794 m^2/g, respectively, and total pore volume and total microporous volume of 0.786 cm^3/g and 0.624 cm^3/g, which had a stable and rich pore structure. The charging and discharging times of the activated carbon electrodes were about 792 s and 54 s at current densities of 0.5 A/g and 10 A/g. In addition, the capacitance retention of the activated carbon was 86.1% and it had a shorter impedance curve. It indicates that the penicillin waste bacterial residue prepared in the study is suitable as an electrode material for supercapacitors and can have better performance in industrial applications.