Author(s)

Ruiying Wu¹, Hongyan Pan^2*

¹Hefei No. 8 High School, Hefei, China.
²Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, China.

High-performance carbonaceous electrode materials for supercapacitors were synthesized by subjecting corn starch to a simple molten salt activation process with K₂CO₃ at a temperature of 850˚C. The resulting carbon material, obtained after activating for 1 hour, displayed excellent capacitive properties due to the synergistic effects of its porous structure. Utilizing these electrodes, the supercapacitor exhibited a high discharge capacitance (248 F g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹), which is 2.4 times higher than that of activated carbon without K₂CO₃ activation. The enhancement in electrical performance was analyzed through SEM and XRD analysis, revealing that the porous and disordered structure provides a greater number of charge storage sites, resulting in improved capacitive performance.

Activated Carbon, Porous Structure, Corn Starch, Supercapacitors

Wu, R. and Pan, H. (2023) Corn Starch Derived Capacitive Carbon Prepared by One-Step K₂CO₃ Carbonization for Supercapacitors. Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, 11, 1-7. doi: 10.4236/msce.2023.1110001.