Chemically Treated Activated Carbon for Supercapacitor Electrode Derived from Starch of Solanum Tuberosum

Because of the increasing demands in energy, growth in alternate energy sources is inevitable. By activation followed by carbonization of starch of solanum tuberosum makes a porous carbon network as electrode material for supercapacitor. To achieve an improvement in specific capacitance, activating the starch of solanum tuberosum using chemicals such as hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid and sulphuric acid were done. The structural and electrochemical performance of activated carbon derived from the starch of solanum tuberosum is evaluated using FTIR, XRD, CV, GCD and EIS. The improved performance of chemically treated starch of solanum tuberosum in energy storage mechanism is ascribed to fast ionic diffusion of the electrolyte into and out of the pores. From the CV analysis, the higher specific capacitance (94 F.g(-1)) is obtained for sulphuric acid treated activated carbon derived from the starch of solanum tuberosum with good capacity retention ratio. From GCD analysis, 78.3, 56.7, 82.7 and 74.9 Fg(-1) of specific capacitance is obtained for POC, POCH, POCP and POCS, respectively. When compared to all the prepared samples, POC exhibited small equivalent series resistance and POCS exhibited small charge transfer resistance.