Determination of the electrochemical energy storage properties of active carbons obtained from compost material

In this thesis, activated carbons were synhesized by chemical activation using fruit peels which are also known as household compost material. KOH, H3PO4 and H3BO3 were used as pre aktivation agent. As synthesized ACs were characterized by SEM-EDX, XPS, Raman, N2 Physisorption analyse techniques. It was determined that, KOH activated one has the highest specific surface area with the number of 1465 m2g-1. All ACs were subjected to CV, GCD analysis to determine the electrochemical energy storage properties. In order to understand the effect of electrode compositon and current collector type on the capacitance values, 4 different slurry were prepared at weight ratio of 85:5:10, 85:10:5, 95:5:5, 80:10:10 (AC: CB: PVDF). All slurries were loaded on 3 different current collectors which are gold, platinum and glassy carbon. Changes in scan rates of CV analysis and current rates of GCD analysis were examined in terms of capacitance values. The electrodes with the highest capacitance values among each group can be listed as K-FP 85:10:5pt with 36.4 Fg-1, B-FP 85:5:10pt with 159.1 Fg-1, and H-FP 85:5:10 gld with 722.4 Fg-1. The two optimum slurry compositions are identifed as 85:10:5 and 85:5:10. No direct relation was found between current collector type and capacitance values. Althoug K-FP has the largest surface area, H-FP deposited the most energy. Surface chemistry and morphology play significant role in energy storage mechanism.