Development of nano structured carbon derived from waste resource for energy storage application

Abstract

The present Ph.D. thesis work is describes approaches in the development of nano newlinestructured carbon materials from various waste resources and biomass for energy storage newlineapplication, such as anode carbon materials for sodium and lithium - ion batteries, electrode newlinematerials for supercapacitor, and oxygen reduction catalyst for fuel cell. newlineOne of the objectives of the thesis is to exploration the synthesis of Nano-porous newlinecarbon with new activating agent for high-performance supercapacitor, we report a new newlineactivating agent (NaCl: KCl) (1:1) for the synthesis of nanoporous carbon from Java Kapok newlinetree shell (1:1) with different controlled temperature under inert atmosphere. Additionally, newlinesurface morphology, physico-chemical and electrochemical properties of the nanoporous newlinecarbon are characterized. The obtained Kapok shell derived nanoporous carbon possessed a newlinelarge surface area of 1260 m newline2 newlineg newline-1 newline, pore volume of 0.439 cm3 newlineg newline-1 newline, pore size of 1.241 nm, and newlinemicrospore volume of 0.314 cm newline3 newlineg newline-1 newline. The nanoporous carbon-based electrode material newlineexhibited higher capacitance of 169 F g-1 with 97 % capacity retention after 10,000 cycles at newline1 A g-1 newline. We believe that this new activation agent can be significant contribution in the new newlinecarbon technology for energy storage materials. newlineIn this present study, novel hierarchical nitrogen-doped porous carbon for use as a newlinemetal free oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalyst is derived from borassus newlineflabellifer male inflorescences by calcining at 1000 °C in an inert atmosphere using metal newlinehydroxides as activating agent and melamine as nitrogen doping agent. The BET surface newlineareas of the lithium ion (Li-ion), potassium-ion (K-ion) and calcium-ion (Ca-ion) activated newlinecarbon are observed to be 824.02 m newline2 newlineg newline-1 newline, 810.88 m newline2 newlineg newline-1 newlineand 602.88 m2 newlineg newline-1 newlinerespectively. newlineAnother interesting fact is that the total surface energy calculated by wicking method newline(73.2 mJ m newline-2 newline), is found to be higher for Li-ion activated carbons. Among the prepare newline