Pyrolysis reactions of suitable natural precursors towards synthesis of carbon electrode materials for energy storage system

Abstract

Clean energy is perhaps the most critical demand of today’s developing world, arising out of rapid exploitation of non-renewable sources of energy. Therefore, we are compelled to look for solutions in the form of renewable sources of energy. Since the time domain for harvesting renewable sources of energy does not coincides with our practical usage, we need efficient energy storage systems. Among various energy storage systems, electrical storage systems are most important. These include batteries and Supercapacitors. In particular, for electrical double layer type Supercapacitors high surface area, porous and highly conducting carbon is highly desirable. Also, it must be derived from low cost precursors by simple protocols. In this research, suitably controlled pyrolysis of unexplored biomass and bi-wastes such as yogurt, biogels like pectin, alginate and agarose prove to be a novel and easily scalable precursors for supercapacitor carbon. Here I report synthesis of carbon from natural gel, pectin, as a precursor by suitably controlled pyrolysis. The carbon synthesized from pectin offers a high capacitance of 310 F/g at current density of 1A/g in aqueous medium.