Porous network of nitrogen self-doped honeycomb like activated carbon derived from Caladium tricolor leaves: a multifunctional platform for energy and environmental applications

Abstract

Activated carbon with appreciable level of porosity and honeycomb like structure was synthesized through simple KOH activation of biochar obtained from Caladium tricolor leaves. The synthesized activated carbon was characterized for morphological and structural characteristics using various techniques. The material possesses an enhanced BET surface area (S_BET) of 1429m²/g with significant microporous texture. XPS data revealed the presence of Nitrogen as the inherent dopant in the material which enhance electrochemical and adsorption perfmance. The activated carbon has been employed as electrode material for electrical double layer type capacitance (EDLC) type supercapacitor which showed promising specific capacitance of 428 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g. Cyclic stability studies revealed a retention of capacitance of 98% for 5000 cycles. Further, adsorption studies were conducted using Furazolidone drug and the adsorption efficiency was found to be 90% following Langmuir isotherm model. Kinetic studies revealed that the adsorption follows pseudo-second order kinetics. The material also investigated for ORR activity which showed notable results which can be further improved to be employed as a metal free Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst.