Promising biomass-derived hierarchical porous carbon material for high performance supercapacitor

Abstract

Herein, we report a simple method towards a hierarchical porous carbon material using biomass rice husk ash as the carbon resource. The carbon material possesses a hierarchical pore structure after a pre-treatment and calcination procedure. The specific surface area of the resulting rice husk porous carbon (RHPC) shows an evident increase in its capacitance due to the effective area of contact between the electrolyte solution and electrode material. The RHPC delivers a great specific capacitance of 260 F g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹ and exhibits outstanding rate capability with an excellent charging/discharging cycle stability (14% loss after 10 000 cycles) at a current density of 20 A g⁻¹. The RHPC shows an excellent electrochemical performance attributed to the large surface area and good electrical conductivity. The porous carbon from biomass rice husk ash shows the potential of the application in energy storage.