Jute Sticks Derived and Commercially Available Activated Carbons for Symmetric Supercapacitors with Bio-electrolyte: A Comparative Study

The fabrication of eco-benign, low cost, and high-performance supercapacitors comprising hierarchical porous electrodes and superior electrolytes are crucial for effective energy storage. In this study, a comparison of electrochemical performances between jute sticks derived activated carbon (JC) and commercially available activated carbon (AC) based symmetric supercapacitors was carried out. We developed highly effective porous activated hierarchical carbon nanosheets through the pyrolysis of abundantly available jute sticks. Electrochemical double-layer supercapacitor devices were assembled utilizing JC and AC based electrodes with glycerol-based bio-electrolyte. The developed JC-based supercapacitor exhibit a negligible IR drop compared to the AC-based supercapacitor, attributed to low charge transfer resistance in the prepared JC. The results showed that the JC-based supercapacitor provides higher specific capacitance (150 F/g) than the AC-based supercapacitor (29 F/g) at a scan rate of 10 mV/sec. The JC-based supercapacitor illustrates a specific energy density of 20 Wh/kg at a specific power density of 500 W/kg with fabulous performance after 10,000 charge/discharge cycles. The series and parallel connection tests demonstrate a stable behavior and indicate that the specific capacitance and operating potential windows of the JC-based supercapacitor can be tuned. In addition, the fabricated JC-based supercapacitor shows mechanical robustness at different bending positions. Our findings confirm that the processed bio-waste shows promise as energy storage materials.