Recent advances in biomass derived activated carbon electrodes for hybrid electrochemical capacitor applications: Challenges and opportunities

Biomass derived activated carbon (BDAC) materials are recently gaining attention as an active electrode material for alternative energy storage devices. Biomass is a rich source of carbon and blessed with high specific surface area, hierarchical pore size distribution, good conductivity, easy availability and facile synthesis approaches. These characteristics make BDAC a suitable electrode material for next generation clean and green energy applications. The review examines the recent developments in the usage of biomass derived carbon and their composites for various hybrid electrochemical capacitor (HEC) devices claiming high electrochemical performance in terms of energy and power density. It also summarizes the various synthesis strategies which lead to different morphologies that are beneficial for high performance energy storage applications. Additionally, the review also coins the existing challenges and possible solutions towards developing cost-effective and high performance HECs using biomass derived carbon-based electrodes. Finally, we speculate the future prospects of biomass derived carbon materials for energy storage applications. We expect that this review article will help in the evolution of new insights for the practical energy storage applications of biomass derived carbons. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.