Hydrodynamic cavitation-assisted preparation of porous carbon from garlic peels for supercapacitors

Xiaoxu Xuan; Mengjie Wang; Weibin You; Sivakumar Manickam; Yang Tao; Joon Yong Yoon; Xun Sun

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2023.106333

Hydrodynamic cavitation-assisted preparation of porous carbon from garlic peels for supercapacitors

Ultrason Sonochem. 2023 Mar:94:106333. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2023.106333. Epub 2023 Feb 13.

Authors

Xiaoxu Xuan¹, Mengjie Wang², Weibin You², Sivakumar Manickam³, Yang Tao⁴, Joon Yong Yoon⁵, Xun Sun⁶

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of High Efficiency and Clean Mechanical Manufacture, Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China; National Demonstration Center for Experimental Mechanical Engineering Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China; Suzhou Research Institute of Shandong University, Suzhou 215123, China.
² Key Laboratory of High Efficiency and Clean Mechanical Manufacture, Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China; National Demonstration Center for Experimental Mechanical Engineering Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China.
³ Petroleum and Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan BE1410, Brunei Darussalam.
⁴ College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
⁵ Department of Mechanical Engineering, BK21 FOUR ERICA-ACE Center, Hanyang University, Ansan 15588, Republic of Korea.
⁶ Key Laboratory of High Efficiency and Clean Mechanical Manufacture, Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China; National Demonstration Center for Experimental Mechanical Engineering Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China. Electronic address: xunsun@sdu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Hydrodynamic cavitation (HC), which can effectively induce sonochemical effects, is widely considered a promising process intensification technology. In the present study, HC was successfully utilized to intensify the alkali activation of GPs for SCs, for the first time. Five BDCMs were synthesized following the method reported in the literature. For comparison, four more BDCMs with HC-treated, among which a sample was further doped with nitrogen during the HC treatment, were prepared. Then all the samples were compared from microscopical characteristics to electrochemical performance as SCs materials. The morphology study demonstrated that the HC treatment had created many defects and amorphous carbon structures on the GP-based BDCMs, with the highest SSA reaching 3272 m²/g (1:6-HCGP), which 32 folded that of the Raw carbon sample's. The HC treatment also intensified the N-doping process. XRD and XPS results manifested that the N content had been increased and consequently changed the electronic structure of the carbon atoms, leading to the increase of specific capacitance (1:6-HCGP+N-based SC, 227 F/g at 10 A/g). The cycle performance proved that the GP-based BDCMs have long-term stability, indicating that the HC-treated BDCMs were good choices for energy storage technologies. Compared with the ultrasound-assisted method, which may have a high energy density, the HC-assisted method enables high production and energy efficiency. This work is a first time attempt towards the industrial application of HC method in energy-related materials synthesis and encourages more in-depth studies in the future.

Keywords: Electricity storage; Hydrodynamic cavitation; Porous biomass carbon; Process intensification; Supercapacitor.