ZnCl2 activated Tomato waste derived porous carbon material for high power density for flexible supercapacitor applications

Abstract

Developing economic and efficient energy storage devices is crucial in the shift towards sustainable energy solutions. Our present work explores the potential of utilizing decayed tomato as a sustainable precursor to produce activated porous carbon electrodes in the construction of supercapacitors. By utilizing the carbonization-activation process and carefully adjusting the preparation parameters, we have achieved an excellent specific surface area (SSA) of 880.33 m² g^-1. This tomato waste char (TWC) predominantly consists of nanopores with a total pore volume of 0.5713 cm³ g^-1 and an average pore diameter of about 2.5958 nm. These parameters play a vital role in determining the supercapacitor behavior of the sample. A specific capacitance of 110 F g^-1 at 1 mA has been recorded. Furthermore, an energy density of 14.97 Wh kg^-1 at 1 mA is observed. This work has reported a high-value power density of about 4163.4 W kg^-1 using a symmetric type supercapacitor.