Microwave-activated reduced graphene oxide composite with hydrothermally treated corn husk activated carbon as an active electrode for high electrochemical performance in symmetrical carbon-based supercapacitor devices

Abstract

This work applies microwaves for synthesizing reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and waste material corn husk activated carbon composites as active electrode materials for symmetric supercapacitors. The rGO is activated by microwave treatment and corn husk carbon by KOH in processed hydrothermal activation, followed by compositing at various weight ratios. Among all compositions, rGO:H_Corn_C (90:10) is reported with the best properties, with a specific surface area of 314.2 m2/g and a high specific capacitance of 1152 F/g at 0.1 A/g. The optimized composite also delivered increasing energy and power densities of up to 160 Wh/kg and 9.68 × 102 W/kg, respectively, within a 1 V operating window. In an experiment by assembling a symmetric coil cell supercapacitor, the device showed a specific capacitance of 142.23 F/g at 0.1 A/g, cycling stability with 98.8% capacitance retention after 1000 cycles of charge-discharge, and peak energy and power densities of 40.68 Wh/kg and 5.74 × 102 W/kg. Overall, the composite material with a high content of rGO and corn husk-derived activated carbon prepared by the hydrothermal method exhibits high-performance for the material in supercapacitor applications.