Synthesis and Supercapacitance of Co₃O₄ Supported on Porous Carbon Derived from Wheat Flour

Abstract

With the shortage of energy and increasing environmental pollution, it is urgent to produce cheap and efficient carbon electrode materials for supercapacitors. The special structure of biomass carbon is beneficial for deposition of functional nanoparticles and improvement in supercapacitance. In this work, a simple method is developed for carbonization and activation of alkali-treated wheat flour, and a porous carbon with a three-dimensional network structure is obtained. The porous carbon electrode exhibits a high specific capacitance of 161.4 F g−1 at the current density of 0.5 A g−1 in 2 M KOH. Further, Co3O4 supported on porous carbon with excellent supercapacitance is synthesized. The composite demonstrates an enhanced specific capacitance of 232.9 F g−1 under the conditions above, and an excellent capacitance retention capability (80.35%) after 1000 cycles. The results show that metal oxide supported on biomass-derived porous carbon has great potential application as electrode materials for supercapacitors.