Biomass-derived activated carbon from empty fruit bunches for supercapacitor electrodes: Crystallinity and electrochemical analysis

Palm processing industries leave behind huge amounts of biomass annually which are not usually being disposed of sustainably. This study utilizes fast and feasible means of converting empty palm bunch biomass into supercapacitor electrodes. The two-step carbonization-activation method was used to synthesize the highly porous activated carbon, which was used in the electrodes. The resulting materials exhibited patterns similar to that of reduced graphene oxides (rGO) and a maximum specific surface area of 1375 m2/g. The supercapacitor designed from the porous activated carbon exhibits the greatest specific capacitance of 251 F/g at a scan rate of 1 mV/s, under 6 M KOH electrolyte. The corresponding GCD analysis at 100 mA/g current density was 346 F/g, and about 82.9 % of the original capacitance value was retained even after 5000 GCD cycles. The energy density and power density were 17.16 Wh/kg and 180.1 W/kg, respectively. This work does not only provide a feasible route for the management of palm agro-industrial waste, but also produces carbon materials whose electrochemical performance are competitive to state-of-the-art biomass-derived carbon, offering a sustainable pathway for electrochemical energy storage.