Three-Dimensional Activated Carbon Recycled from Rotten Potatoes for High-performance Supercapacitors

Carbon material derived from waste biomass for supercapacitor applications has been widely investigated because of its low cost and environmental friendly. In this paper, rotten potato was selected as the precursor to prepare three-dimensional (3D) activated carbon (AC) after hydrothermal treatment, carbonization and activation of KOH. Benefiting from large specific surface area, 3D interconnected macropore framework incorporating with meso-/micropore and the intrinsic good conductivity, the rotten potato-derived AC achieves a relatively high capacitance of 269 F g(-1) (1 A g(-1)), desirable rate performance and superior cycling stability. More importantly, the assembled symmetric device delivers a high specific capacitance (48 F g(-1)) and a high energy density (4.27 Wh kg(-1)) at a current density of 1 A g(-1). The result indicates a low-cost and facile approach for high-performance AC based on waste biomass source implying commercial potential in supercapacitor applications.