Wheat straw-derived carbon from the Wheatbelt region in Western Australia was subjected to chemical activation in an electrolyte containing either acid or base treatment. The findings showed an increase in electron/hole mobility towards the interfaces due to the presence of different surface functional groups such as C-SOx -C and S=C in the carbon framework for acid activation. Likewise, the galvanostatic capacitance measured at a current density of 2 mA cm-2 in a three-electrode configuration for acid-activated wheat straw exhibited 162 F g-1 , while that for base-activated wheat straw exhibited 106 F g-1 . An increase of 34.5 % more capacitance was achieved for acid-treated wheat straw. This improvement is attributed to the synergistic effects between surface functional groups and electrolyte ions, as well as the electronic structure of the porous electrode.
Keywords: activated carbon; biowaste; density functional theory; supercapacitors; wheat straw.
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