Activated Carbon from Birch Wood as an Electrode Material for Aluminum Batteries and Supercapacitors

Due to its sustainable approach, biomass is the subject of much research focused on the synthesis of multifunctional materials including electrodes for batteries and supercapacitors. In this work, sawdust from the processing of birch logs was used to produce a highly porous carbon material (CBW) that is employed for the construction of electrodes for aluminum batteries (ABs) and supercapacitors (SCs). A multitude of characterizations indicated that CBW is built in with highly disordered amorphous carbons and an extremely high specific surface area of 3029 m² g⁻¹ which is predominant with microporous features. The chemical analysis of CBW indicated the presence of a significant amount of oxygen functionalities. As a cathode of AB, CBW achieved discharge capacities 115, 74, 54, 50, 47, 43, and 29 mAh g⁻¹ at current rates 0.1, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 10.0 A g⁻¹, respectively. Similarly, SC with CBW symmetric electrodes exhibited capacitances 143, 94, 87, 79, 74, 69, 65, and 51 F g⁻¹ at current rates 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 10.0 A g⁻¹, respectively. The electrochemical characterization revealed that CBW is promising for ABs and SCs, and controlling the porosity type could further enhance the performance.