Low cost activated carbon derived from Cucumis melo fruit peel for electrochemical supercapacitor application

In this study, porous activated carbon prepared from Cucumis melo (Cm) fruit peel is explored as an electrode material for supercapacitor applications. The structural properties are analyzed by XRD and XPS. The morphology of the sample is characterized by FE-SEM and TEM. With a view to confirm the surface functional groups as well as degree of graphitization of the samples, FTIR and Raman spectral studies are carried out. The electrochemical studies are performed in an electrochemical workstation with 1 M aqueous KOH. The newly fabricated Cm derived activated carbon electrode (Cm-900) shows an excellent specific capacitance value of 404 F g(-1) at 1 A g(-1). It also displays very good cycle performance, because the specific capacitance is still maintained as 91% even after 8000 charge and discharge cycles. In addition, the fabricated symmetric device using Cm-900 exhibits the high energy density 29.30 Wh kg(-1) at the power density of 279.78 W kg(-1). Thus, the highly porous Cm-900 electrode is proved to a promising candidate for high-performance supercapacitors.