Despite receiving high regard as potential energy storage
devices,
high-performance supercapacitors that can be produced from bio-renewable
sources at low cost are still in need. In this work, a novel fabrication
process for cassava-based supercapacitors was described in which carbon
dots (CDs) and activated carbon (AC) were prepared from cassava peel
and a quasi-solid polymer electrolyte was prepared for the first time
from cassava starch (CS). A specific capacitance (C
sp) of 138.2 F g–1 was obtained from
the AC electrode in the CS/H2SO4 electrolyte,
which was much greater than 95.9 F g–1 of the AC
electrode in a PVA/H2SO4 solution. The CDs were
employed as additives in the electrode and electrolyte. The addition
of 10 wt % CDs to the AC electrode in the pristine CS/H2SO4 electrolyte increased the C
sp to 239.5 F g–1. When 0.02 wt % CDs were added
to the CS/H2SO4 electrolyte, a high specific
capacitance of 374.6 F g–1 was obtained. Moreover,
the fabricated supercapacitor exhibited an impressive cycling stability
of 93.3% after 10,000 cycles and showed good performance in a wide
temperature range from −40 to 50 °C. Based on intensive
electrochemical analysis using several models, the CDs were demonstrated
to improve the C
sp and cycling stability
by enhancing the surface capacitance and surface-controlled processes.
In this work, a novel, simple strategy was demonstrated for fabricating
practical, high-performance supercapacitors from cassava at a low
cost.