Eco-friendly preparation of nitrogen-doped porous carbon materials for enhanced solid-state supercapacitor device

In the last years, researchers all over the world have been looking for biomass -derived porous carbon materials, due to the possibilities for large-scale synthesis, easy to control the pore structure, and high specific surface area. Activated heteroatom doped porous carbon (AHPC) with a high porosity was made by treating inexpensive waste Ficus elastica leaves with a base. The electrochemical performance of the produced activated carbon has been evaluated in various electrolytes, including basic, neutral, and acidic electrolytes. At a current density of 1 A/g in the acidic electrolyte, the specific capacitance of the activated carbon AHPC electrode is higher, 456 F/g, compared to other electrolytes. The symmetric supercapacitor device is built using PVA-H 2 SO 4 gel electrolyte, and its electrochemical performance is evaluated. In addition, the energy density of the built symmetric supercapacitor device is higher than the existing commercial supercapacitors, achieving 62 Wh/kg at a power density of 15.2 kW/kg. This is because the porous carbon has a hierarchical pore distribution and a heteroatomenriched structure, which allows for rapid charge/mass diffusion channels, and a vast ion -accessible network.