High-performance supercapacitor based on self-heteroatom-doped porous carbon electrodes fabricated from Mikania micrantha

Applications, economic advantage, and effective waste management have sparked much interest in porous carbon compounds synthesized from renewable and biowaste resources. Self-heteroatom-doped carbon compounds have recently been made using various biological precursors. This study investigates the ease of preparing biomass-derived porous carbon (BPC) matrices from raw and verdant Mikania micrantha leaves using a direct activation and pyrolysis procedure. With the aid of preactivation and pyrolysis, BPC materials can be synthesized with a high surface area of 850.62 m² g⁻¹ and total pore volume of 0.85 cm³ g⁻¹. Raman spectra reveal the successful creation of pores and enhanced structural disorder following carbonization account by achieving higher intensity ratio of the D band to the G band (ID/IG) of 0.97. At a current density of 1 A/g, the BPC materials MM-700 exhibit a specific capacitance of 393 F/g. Interestingly, the MM-700 BPC materials have a greater capacitive contribution to charge accumulation during the electrochemical reactions. The BPC material MM-700 solid-state device manufactured with a PVA-H₂SO₄ gel electrolyte has a specific capacitance of 119 F/g at 1 A/g current density and a power density of 13.284 kW/kg at 30 A/g current density. Even at a high current density of 30 A/g, the synthesized porous carbon materials retain a high specific capacitance. Moreover, the MM-700 BPC material exhibits outstanding stability in both three- and two-electrode systems in strong acidic electrolyte. Graphical abstract: Porous carbon nanosheets are synthesized and evaluated for their potential as an electro-active material for use in high-performance supercapacitors [Figure not available: see fulltext.].