Sustainable Sugarcane Bagasse-Derived Activated Carbon for High-Performance Symmetric Supercapacitor Devices Applications

Abstract

In this study, sugarcane bagasse (SCB), an abundant agricultural byproduct, was transformed into activated carbon via a controlled thermochemical pyrolysis route for high-performance energy storage applications. Herein, we utilized the activated carbon derived from pure sugarcane bagasse (SCB-AC) and further activated using KOH (SCB-KOH-AC) as an electrode material in aqueous symmetric supercapacitor configurations. The synthesized activated carbon was subjected to analysis using a range of characteristics including FT-Raman spectroscopy, which was employed to confirm the functional groups present in the carbon materials. The XPS analysis provided insights into the elemental composition and ionic states. The SEM analysis revealed that both activated carbon and KOH/activated carbon materials exhibited a layered or stacked, albeit slightly random, orientation. Electrochemical studies demonstrated that the synthesized carbon electrodes exhibited impressive specific capacitance values of (SCB) activated carbon (132.20 F/g) and KOH-activated, pure SCB AC (SCB-A) 253.41 F/g at 0.5 A/g. Furthermore, the SCB KOH-activated carbon (AC) electrode revealed a higher specific capacitance value and A//SCB-A symmetric devices delivered energy density reaching 17.91 Wh/kg and power density up to 2990 W/kg. The KOH-activated carbon electrode demonstrated remarkable cycling stability retaining 93.89%, even after 10,000 cycles. These results suggest that the sugarcane bagasse-derived activated carbon is a sustainable and low-cost candidate for next-generation supercapacitor electrodes. The results demonstrate enhanced capacitance, stability, and pore structure tailored for energy storage applications. The KOH-activated carbon SCB carbon symmetric device with symmetric electrodes exhibited a suitable bio-mass carbon for future energy storage applications.