Preparation of Capacitor's Electrode from Coconut Shell

Abstract

In this work, activated carbons were prepared from coconut shell by chemical activation method and utilized as electrode materials for electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC). A preliminary characteristic of activated carbon from coconut shell includes the Brunnaeur Emmett Teller (BET) analysis and cyclic voltammetry measurements. The BET surface area is not affected by the variation of activation temperature as both of the samples showed BET surface area of about 850-870 m2g-1. The N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms showed that the sample exhibited type I characteristics according to IUPAC classification, which confirms its micro-porosity. Compared with the un-activated carbon samples, the activated ones exhibited the better electrochemical properties with a specific capacitance of 150 F g−1 at a scan rate of 2 mV s−1. The good performance of activated carbon is attributed to the enhancement of surface area due to the KOH pretreatment which can open new pores accessible for the ionic transport.