Dopamine Functionalized Activated Carbon-Based 3-D-Printed Biodegradable Electrode for Supercapacitor

This study investigates dopamine-grafted activated carbon (DAC) composites synthesized via chemical bonding for use as biodegradable supercapacitor (SC) electrodes. This composite approach leverages both electrical double-layer capacitance and pseudocapacitance to achieve a significant increase in capacitance. The results of thermogravimetric, surface area and porosimeter, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirmed the grafting of dopamine (DP) on activated carbon (AC). The 3-D-printed SCs were manufactured utilizing electrode materials based on DAC and AC to investigate their electrochemical performance. The DAC-based SC exhibited a specific capacitance of 24 F $\cdot $ g⁻¹, notably higher than the 15-F $\cdot $ g⁻¹ specific capacitance observed in AC-based SC under a current density of 0.008 A $\cdot $ g⁻¹. This difference highlights the important role played by the redox reaction facilitated by the grafted dopamine molecule. DAC holds promise as a biodegradable electrode material suitable for SCs for low-power wireless sensor application.