Fabricating sustainable lignin-derived porous carbon as electrode for high-performance supercapacitors

Abstract

Lignocellulosic biomass such as plants and agricultural waste are ideal to tackle the current energy crisis and energy-related environmental issues. Carbon-rich lignin is abundant in lignocellulosic biomass, whose high-value transformation and utilization has been the most urgent problem to be solved. Herein, we propose a method for the preparation of porous carbon from lignin employing an H₃PO₄-assisted hydrothermal method. We characterize the as-prepared lignin-derived porous carbon and investigate its potential for energy storage. After assisted hydrothermal treatment followed by carbonization at 800 °C, the lignin-derived porous carbon displays a high specific capacitance (223.6 F·g^–1 at 0.1 A·g^–1) and excellent cycling ability with good capacitance retention. In this present study, the resultant lignin-derived porous carbon was used as the electrode of a supercapacitor, illustrating yet another potential high-value use for lignin, namely as a candidate for the sustainable fabrication of main supercapacitor components.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

lignin / porous carbon / electrode / supercapacitor

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Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts to declare.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their gratitude for the financial support from the National Science Foundation for Post-doctoral Scientists of China (Grant No. 2019M651050), and Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University (Grant No. 2019KF32).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-023-2313-0 and is accessible for authorized users.

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