Herbaceous Biomass Waste-Derived Activated Carbons for Supercapacitors

In the study, herbaceous biomass waste including giant miscanthus, corn stalk, and wheat stalk were used to prepare commercially valuable activated carbons by KOH activation. The waste biomass predominantly consists of cellulose/hemicellulose and lignin, in which decomposition after carbonization and activation contributed to commercially valuable specific surface areas (>$2000m^2/g$) and specific capacitances (>120 F/g) that exceeded those of commercial activated carbon. The significant electrochemical performance of the herbaceous biomass-derived activated carbons indicated the feasibility of utilizing waste biomass to fabricate energy storage materials. Furthermore, with respect to both economic and environmental perspectives, it is advantageous to obtain activated carbon from herbaceous biomass waste given the ease of handling biomass and the low production cost of activated carbon.