Gamma-radiated biochar carbon for improved supercapacitor performance

Ezaldeen Adhamash, Rajesh Pathak, Qiquan Qiao, Yue Zhou, Robert McTaggart

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

Biochar carbon YP-50 exposed to gamma radiation at 50 kGy, 100 kGy, and 150 kGy was used as an electrode for an electric double-layer capacitor. The gamma radiation affected the pore structure and pore volume of the biochar electrodes. The optimized surface morphology, pore structure, and pore volume of the biochar with an irradiation dose of 100 kGy showed outstanding specific capacitance of 246.2 F g-1 compared to the untreated biochar (115.3 F g-1). The irradiation dose of 100 kGy exhibited higher specific power and specific energy of 0.1 kW kg-1 and 34.2 W h kg-1 respectively, with a capacity retention of above 96% after 10 000 cycles at a current density of 2 A g-1. This improvement can be attributed to the decrease in average particle size, an increase in the porosity of biochar carbon. Besides, the charge transfer resistance of supercapacitor is significantly reduced from 21.7 Ω to 7.4 Ω after treating the biochar carbon with 100 kGy gamma radiation, which implies an increase in conductivity. This gamma radiation strategy to pretreat the carbon material for improving the properties of carbon materials can be promising for the development of high-performance supercapacitors for large-scale applications.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)29910-29917
Number of pages8
JournalRSC Advances
Volume10
Issue number50
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 13 2020
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Chemical Engineering

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