Renewable Carbon Materials as Electrodes for High-Performance Supercapacitors: From Marine Biowaste to High Specific Surface Area Porous Biocarbons

Ana T S C Brandão; Sabrina State; Renata Costa; Pavel Potorac; José A Vázquez; Jesus Valcarcel; A Fernando Silva; Liana Anicai; Marius Enachescu; Carlos M Pereira

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c00816

Renewable Carbon Materials as Electrodes for High-Performance Supercapacitors: From Marine Biowaste to High Specific Surface Area Porous Biocarbons

ACS Omega. 2023 May 17;8(21):18782-18798. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c00816. eCollection 2023 May 30.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Instituto de Ciências Moleculares IMS-CIQUP, Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 687, Porto 4169-007, Portugal.
² Center for Surface Science and Nanotechnology, University Polytechnica of Bucharest, Splaiul Independentei, 313, Bucharest 060042, Romania.
³ Grupo de Reciclado y Valorización de Materiales Residuales (REVAL), Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas (IIM-CSIC), Vigo 36208, Spain.
⁴ OLV Development SRL, Brasoveni 3, Bucharest 023613, Romania.
⁵ Academy of Romanian Scientists, Splaiul Independentei 54, Bucharest 050094, Romania.

Abstract

Waste, in particular, biowaste, can be a valuable source of novel carbon materials. Renewable carbon materials, such as biomass-derived carbons, have gained significant attention recently as potential electrode materials for various electrochemical devices, including batteries and supercapacitors. The importance of renewable carbon materials as electrodes can be attributed to their sustainability, low cost, high purity, high surface area, and tailored properties. Fish waste recovered from the fish processing industry can be used for energy applications and prioritizing the circular economy principles. Herein, a method is proposed to prepare a high surface area biocarbon from glycogen extracted from mussel cooking wastewater. The biocarbon materials were characterized using a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analyzer to determine the specific surface area and pore size and by scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, Raman analysis, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The electrochemical characterization was performed using a three-electrode system, utilizing a choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvent (DES) as an eco-friendly and sustainable electrolyte. Optimal time and temperature allowed the preparation of glycogen-based carbon materials, with a specific surface area of 1526 m² g^-1, a pore volume of 0.38 cm³ g^-1, and an associated specific capacitance of 657 F g^-1 at a current density of 1 A g^-1, at 30 °C. The optimal material was scaled up to a two-electrode supercapacitor using a DES-based solid-state electrolyte (SSE@DES). This prototype delivered a maximum capacitance of 703 F g^-1 at a 1 A g^-1 of current density, showing 75% capacitance retention over 1000 cycles, delivering the highest energy density of 0.335 W h kg^-1 and power density of 1341 W kg^-1. Marine waste can be a sustainable source for producing nanoporous carbon materials to be incorporated as electrode materials in energy storage devices.