Carbon is among the commercialized materials used for production of electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLC) with a storage capacity of ~130 F/g (Maxwell's BoostCap) due to its renewability, high stability and lower cost. Carbon materials are prepared from natural precursors such as bamboo, rice husk, coconut kernel and palm kernel shells and could be modified in several ways including activated carbon, carbon nanotubes, graphene, graphite and supercritical carbon. We have now fabricated high performance EDLC from activated carbon developed palm kernel shells. The activated carbon in this work is developed from the hydrothermal carbonization of palm kernel shells and subsequent treatments. The materials thus developed shown nearly rectangular shaped cyclic voltammograms and specific capacitance as high as ~230 F/g at scan rate 5 mV/s using 5.5 M KOH electrolyte. Furthermore, the devices showed high cycling stability under long term galvanostatic cycling at high currents (~15 mA) thereby providing opportunities to simultaneously handle the environmental hazards and develop renewable energy devices.

Record specific capacitance in activated carbon developed from waste palm kernel shells

245th National Meeting (2013)

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