Gupta Himanshu, Rathore Hem Kanwar, Kumar Manoj, Menezes Prashanth W, Sarkar Debasish
Department of Physics, Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur, Jaipur, Rajasthan, 302017, India.
Defence Laboratory, DRDO, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 342011, India.
Small. 2025 Jul;21(30):e2502071. doi: 10.1002/smll.202502071. Epub 2025 May 19.
Enhancement of the energy-power performance of aqueous zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitors (ZIHSCs) relies on the development of high-performance carbon-based cathode materials. Porous carbon derived from plant-based biomasses is particularly attractive due to its rich surface functionalities, high specific surface area (SSA), tunable porosity, cost-effectiveness, and environmental sustainability. Here, bitter apple pulp (BAP) is explored as a green precursor to realize a novel activated carbon for ZIHSC applications. KOH activation at 900 °C results in a carbon (BAPC1-900) with an exceptionally high SSA of 3254 m g, pore volume of 1.8 cm g, and rich oxygen functionalities (C─O, C─OH) significantly outperforming the non-activated counterpart (64 m g, 0.016 cm g). Raman spectroscopy reveals that the high SSA and oxygen content facilitate the simultaneous adsorption/desorption of Zn and desorption/adsorption of SO ions, ensuring an impressive Zn-ion energy density of 162 Wh kg within a potential window of 0-1.8 V in an aqueous ZnSO electrolyte for the optimized BAPC1-900-based cathode. Besides, the electrode demonstrates excellent reversibility over 50 000 cycles, retaining over 95% capacity retention. This study highlights the efficacy of pulp-based biomass-derived porous carbon and KOH-activation chemistry in maximizing the zinc-ion storage potential of carbon-based cathodes for next-generation energy storage.
水性锌离子混合超级电容器（ZIHSCs）能量-功率性能的提升依赖于高性能碳基阴极材料的开发。源自植物生物质的多孔碳因其丰富的表面官能团、高比表面积（SSA）、可调孔隙率、成本效益和环境可持续性而格外引人注目。在此，探索了苦苹果果肉（BAP）作为绿色前驱体，以实现用于ZIHSC应用的新型活性炭。在900℃下进行KOH活化得到一种碳（BAPC1-900），其具有3254 m²/g的超高比表面积、1.8 cm³/g的孔体积以及丰富的氧官能团（C─O、C─OH），显著优于未活化的对应物（64 m²/g、0.016 cm³/g）。拉曼光谱表明，高比表面积和氧含量有利于锌离子的同时吸附/解吸以及硫酸根离子的解吸/吸附，在基于优化的BAPC1-900的阴极的水性硫酸锌电解质中，在0-1.8 V的电位窗口内确保了162 Wh/kg的令人印象深刻的锌离子能量密度。此外，该电极在50000次循环中表现出优异的可逆性，容量保持率超过95%。这项研究突出了基于果肉的生物质衍生多孔碳和KOH活化化学在最大化用于下一代储能的碳基阴极的锌离子存储潜力方面的功效。
