Research on High-Value Utilization of Carbon Derived from Tobacco Waste in Supercapacitors

Abstract

Large quantities of tobacco stalks residues are generated and discarded as crop waste or combusted directly every year. Thus, we need to find an appropriate way to dispose of this type of waste and recycle it. The conversion of biomass waste into electrode materials for supercapacitors is entirely in line with the concept of sustainability and green. In this paper, tobacco-stalk-based, porous activated carbon (TC) was successfully synthesized by high-temperature and high-pressure hydrothermal pre-carbonization and KOH activation. The synthesized TC had a high pore volume and a large surface area of 1875.5 m2 g−1, in which there were many mesopores and interconnected micro-/macropores. The electrochemical test demonstrated that TC-1 could reach a high specific capacitance of up to 356.4 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1, which was carried in 6M KOH. Additionally, a symmetrical supercapacitor device was fabricated by using TC-1 as the electrode, which delivered a high energy density up to 10.4 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 300 W kg−1, and excellent long-term cycling stability (92.8% of the initial capacitance retention rate after 5000 cycles). Therefore, TC-1 is considered to be a promising candidate for high-performance supercapacitor electrode materials and is a good choice for converting tobacco biomass waste into a resource.