Biomass‐Derived Carbon Materials for Smart Electronics: Insights from Wood Pitch‐based Microsupercapacitors

Abstract

Wood pitch, derived from dry distillation of wood, is a promising carbon electrode material. A novel strategy is presented for fabricating honeycomb‐like porous carbon nanosheets using a template‐free approach. Wood pitch is pre‐treated with H₂O₂ to introduce oxygen‐containing functional groups selectively at the edges of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, enhancing hydrophilicity and reactivity. Adding rosin groups to the oxidized wood pitch molecules helps to regulate intermolecular spacing and prevent excessive aggregation, facilitating subsequent KOH intercalation activation and the formation of a porous structure. The resulting rosin‐modified wood pitch‐based carbon material (RWPC‐0.2) features a high specific surface area (3521.5 m2 g−1). With a current density of 1 A g−1, the device has a specific capacitance of 376 F g−1. After 5000 cycles at 10 A g−1, it still has 83.8% of its initial specific capacitance. Using direct ink writing (DIW) technology in combination with poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene): polystyrene sulfonate/RWPC‐0.2 (PEDOT: PSS/RWPC‐0.2) as the electrode ink, microelectrodes are fabricated and microsupercapacitors are constructed with high areal capacitance (460 mF cm−2), excellent rate performance, and good cycling stability. This study offers new insights for developing printed micro‐energy storage devices based on wood pitch‐derived carbon materials and opens new possibilities for the application of biomass materials in smart electronics.