Performance of supercapacitor electrodes made from corn cob-derived activated carbon
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Abstract
Corn is a significant economic crop in the country, utilized for consumption and in the food production industry. The residual byproduct, corn cobs, can be synthesized into highly porous carbon, which can then be fabricated into electrodes for supercapacitors. In this research, the performance of the supercapacitors was enhanced by incorporating carbon black (CB) in ratios of 1:4, 2:3, and 1:1. The mixtures were ball-milled for 24 hours and subsequently coated as carbon films onto aluminum foil using a spray technique. This process yielded both pure corn cob-derived carbon electrodes and those mixed with carbon black. Surface morphology of the resulting carbon films was examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The results indicated that the carbon black nanoparticles were intercalated into the surface of the corn cob-derived carbon. Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis was conducted to investigate the functional groups of the electrodes; the 2:3 ratio exhibited the highest absorption values at the O-H stretch and C-N stretch bonds. Finally, the materials were assembled into coin-cell supercapacitors. It was found that the corn cob-derived carbon supercapacitors could achieve a 2.7-fold increase in efficiency with the addition of carbon black. Therefore, this material is suitable for fabrication into supercapacitors to be utilized as an energy storage source.
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References
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