Elsevier

Electrochimica Acta

Volume 192, 20 February 2016, Pages 110-119
Electrochimica Acta

High surface area activated carbon from rice husk as a high performance supercapacitor electrode

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2016.01.140Get rights and content

Abstract

In this study, we report on the application of high surface area activated carbon (AC) derived from rice husks as a supercapacitor electrode. The prepared AC was free from Brønsted or Lewis acid sites, thus making the electrical double layer capacitance as the main charge storage mechanism. Three samples of AC with different surface areas were prepared at different activation temperatures and studied electrochemically using cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. All AC samples exhibited good electrochemical performance as supercapacitor electrode. The maximum specific capacitance (147 F g−1) was obtained by the AC sample (surface area of 2696 m2 g−1) which was prepared at an activation temperature of 850 °C. Detailed impedance studies revealed the low resistivity (0.23 Ω) of AC sample and the fast frequency response (0.11 s) of the supercapacitor electrode.

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

The advancement of technology leads to the high demand for high performance energy storage devices which can supply the desired amount of energy when needed. The electrochemical supercapacitor, or better known as supercapacitor, could be the answer in the quest for high performance energy storage device. Supercapacitor is an energy storage device that can deliver high power output (≥10 kW kg−1) with long-term cycle life, in addition to its rapid charge-discharge process [1], [2], [3], [4], [5].

Sample preparation

Sodium hydroxide pellets (NaOH, 99%), potassium hydroxide pellets (KOH, 99%) and nitric acid (HNO3, 69%) were obtained from Qrec. Polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP, 99%) were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich. Rice husks (RH) was obtained from a rice mill in Penang, Malaysia. All chemicals were of analytical grade and used without purification.

The detailed experimental procedure for AC preparation was reported in our previous work [29]. Typically, 25 g of rinsed rice husk

Physical characterizations

The FTIR spectra in Fig. 1 indicate that the AC samples consist of several functional groups. Basically, the peaks appearing at 1570–1580 cm−1 is attributed to the presence of aromatic Cdouble bondC bonds [30]. As can be seen, AC850 exhibited the highest peak intensity, thus revealing the presence of the highest amount of Cdouble bondC aromatic bonds among the samples. In addition, a broad peak in the region of 3400–3500 cm−1 could be associated to the Osingle bondH stretching from the adsorbed moisture [31]. The sharp peak at

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, high surface area AC samples, which were derived from rice husk (RH) and activated at different temperatures were studied electrochemically to evaluate their performance as a supercapacitor electrode. The optimum-activation-temperature-produced AC850, which possessed the highest specific surface area and porosity, contributed to good electrochemical performance as supercapacitor electrode. The AC850 was shown to deliver a specific capacitance of 147 F g−1 and an energy density of

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation for the eScienceFund (06-01-16-SF0094), Research University Grant (Ac. No. 1001/PKIMIA/814127 & 1001/PKIMIA/811269) and also the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education for providing the MyBrain15 scholarships to E.Y.L. Teo and L. Muniandy.

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    E.Y.L.T and L.M. contributed equally to this work as first authors.

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