Activated Carbon from Bio-wastes of Durian Fruits as Active Material for Electrodes of Electric Double-layer Capacitors

Abstract

In this study, bio-wastes from durian fruits such as seeds and shells have been used as precursor materials to prepare activated carbon (AC). While the applicability of a one-step method of impregnation-activation has been investigated for the activation of durian shells, a two-step method of carbonization-impregnation-activation has been tried for the durian seeds. Durian shells based AC (DSh-AC) was found to have a BET surface area () of 2004 m2 g-1 and the durian seeds based AC (DS-AC) had of 1176 m2 g-1. A new approach to electrical double-layer capacitor (EDLC) fabrication has been attempted to avoid the use of polymer binders and organic solvents in the electrodes by coating the electrode material directly on the separator. Instead of coating onto metal current collector, the AC was coated on a glass microfiber filter which was used as the separator to form the electrode. As an electrode material in the EDLC, DSh-AC performed well with a specific capacitance () between 72 and 82 F g-1 whereas the DS-AC showed lower values of between 64 and 70 F g-1. The reasonable good results indicate that the simple approach of device fabrication can also produce EDLCs with satisfactory performance parameters.