Utilization of coconut shell activated carbon to generate electrical energy using sodium chloride electrolyte

Abstract

Fossil fuels that are used to generate electrical energy are running low. Besides that, energy generated from fossil fuels causes global warming and climate change due to gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, leading to a greenhouse effect. In addition, the development of small electronic devices has created power demands, from initially in milli watt (mW), to microwatt (μW) level for wireless sensor networks, which generally use batteries as a power supply. Therefore, environmentally friendly and renewable materials like coconut shells are needed to generate electrical energy. This research aims to generate electrical energy from a model using coconut shell activated carbon with sodium chloride (NaCl) electrolyte. The electrical energy generation model is composed of counter electrode–electrode–counter electrode. The electrode used was coconut shell–activated carbon. Three counter electrodes were used: aluminum, zinc and copper plates. The electrolyte used was sodium chloride (NaCl) solution. The electrolyte was injected between the electrode and the counter electrode, and heat was applied. When the electrolyte was injected into the electrical energy generation model, interaction occurred between the ions from the electrolyte and the functional groups, the pores of the activated carbon, and the counter electrode, and then electrons were released. The research results show that the voltage produced due to an increase in temperature up to ΔT=54 °C, is 0.875 volts for aluminum, 0.767 volts for zinc and 0.091 volts for copper. The average thermal voltage sensitivity (dV/dT) for aluminum is 68.99297 mV/°C, while that for zinc is 61.34319 mV/°C, and copper is 7.02533 mV/°C. The currents produced by aluminum, zinc and copper are 5.9 μA, 3.8 μA and 0.157 μA, respectively