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Sustainable activated carbon fiber from sawdust by reactivation for high-performance supercapacitors

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Abstract

Activated carbon fibers (ACFs) produced from recycled fir sawdust were used as electrodes in supercapacitors. It was shown that the ultramicropores (0.65–0.85 nm) were most efficient in contributing to the supercapacitor capacitance, while mesopores helped increase the rate performance capacitance. The experimental ACF electrode supercapacitor indicated a capacitance of 242 F g−1 in 6 M KOH aqueous electrolyte exhibiting a high energy density of 8.4 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 250 W kg−1. Excellent cycle stability was also achieved, showing a good competitiveness of wood-based ACFs in comparison with other activated carbons currently used in supercapacitors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the China National Science & Technology Pillar Program through the Project “Key technology and application demonstration for the production of wood-based functional adsorption materials” (2015BAD14B06) and from China Scholarship Council. Thanks are also extended to Dr. Mourad Krifa and Mr. Hao Wu in the School of Human Ecology at The University of Texas at Austin for their help with the contact angle test and Dr. Guihua Yu and Mr. Lele Peng in the Materials Science and Engineering Program and Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin for their help with electrochemical test.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Tsinghua East Road 35, Haidian, 100083, Beijing, China

    Yuxiang Huang & Guangjie Zhao

  2. School of Human Ecology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Yuxiang Huang, Yue Liu & Jonathan Y. Chen

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  1. Yuxiang Huang
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  2. Yue Liu
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  3. Guangjie Zhao
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  4. Jonathan Y. Chen
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Correspondence to Guangjie Zhao or Jonathan Y. Chen.

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Huang, Y., Liu, Y., Zhao, G. et al. Sustainable activated carbon fiber from sawdust by reactivation for high-performance supercapacitors. J Mater Sci 52, 478–488 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0347-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0347-0

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