Molten salt synthesis of nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbon from plantain peels for high-performance supercapacitor
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Date
2022-09-01
Authors
Nanzumani, Nashiru Mahadeen
Agyemang, Frank Ofori
Mensah-Darkwa, Kwadwo
Appiah, Eugene Sefa
Arthur, Emmanuel Kwesi
Gikunoo, Emmanuel
Koomson, Bennetta
Jadhav, Amol R.
Raji, Akeem
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Volume Title
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Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry
Abstract
This work employs a non-corrosive and non-toxic molten salt combination of NaCl and KCl as an activation
agent in an air environment to synthesize nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbon from plantain peels at
800 °C for supercapacitor application. Due to the synergistic effect of nitrogen doping, the synthesized nitrogen-
doped activated unripe porous carbon (AUPN) has a hierarchical (micro-meso-macropores) porous structure
and a high surface area of 959 m2/g, providing sufficient active sites for charge storage, rapid electrolyte
and ionic mobility. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy analysis revealed the formation of a carbon product
with a limited degree of graphitization and the crystallite size (La), which is valuable for evaluating the
defects caused by nitrogen doping. In a three-electrode cell with a 6 M KOH electrolyte, AUPN recorded a specific
capacitance of 550 F/g at 1 A/g. After 1000 cycles, capacitance retention was 99% at 4 A/g. Compared to
other reported porous carbon materials, the overall electrochemical performance of AUPN is superior. This is
due to the abundant nitrogen-doping, which introduces pseudocapacitance and increases the surface wettability
of the porous carbon, resulting in a decrease in ionic-transport resistance.
These findings indicate that this green and scalable technique is a potential synthesis method for producing
porous carbon materials for energy storage applications.
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Citation
Nashiru Mahadeen Nanzumani, Frank Ofori Agyemang, Kwadwo Mensah-Darkwa, Eugene Sefa Appiah, Emmanuel Kwesi Arthur, Emmanuel Gikunoo, Bennetta Koomson, Amol R. Jadhav, Akeem Raji, Molten salt synthesis of nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbon from plantain peels for high-performance supercapacitor, Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Volume 920, 2022, 116645