Highly microporous and mesoporous nanomaterials derived from Agave sisalana waste for supercapacitors

Nanostructured electrodes with large surface area are essential for studying charge storage mechanisms in supercapacitors. Biomass-based carbonaceous porous electrodes have proven to be good candidates for supercapacitor application. In this study, micropore and mesopore dominated carbon materials derived from Agave sisalana sisal waste were prepared through carbonization and chemical activation with ZnCl2. Scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction studies show that the microstructure and composition of the as-prepared microporous carbon materials are influenced by adjusting the ZnCl2 to the carbon mass ratio. Sorption studies demonstrated a high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 1464 m(2) g(-1), type I isotherms for low temperature, type IV at 900 & DEG;C, and 99% micropore content in all the samples. The fabricated electrodes exhibited high specific capacitances of 497 F g(-1)at 5 mV s(-1), which is indicative of our carbon materials' strong potential for use in the production of high-performance supercapacitors. Specific capacitance increased with increasing micropore surface areas.