Advancements in biomass derived porous carbon materials and their surface influence effect on electrode electrochemical performance for sustainable supercapacitors: A review

Supercapacitors have gained a lot of interest as a result of the recent focus on energy depletion and environmental pollution, which has sparked research into more sophisticated and ecologically friendly energy storage and conversion technologies. However, the low energy density and small potential window range in supercapacitors cause's researchers have been devoted on fabricating novel electrode materials. Particularly porous activated carbon (AC) materials derived from biomass are crucial and determine the intensive property of supercapacitors outstanding performance. AC from biomasses are highly abundant, environmentally friendly, and economically advantageous that are frequently used in supercapacitors due to their excellent electrochemical performance, good porosity, large specific surface area, and good graphitization degree. However, AC is significantly influenced by the chemical composition, surface design, and microstructural characteristics of biomass precursors. Therefore, the primary objective of this review is to examine the recent progress on the sophisticated art of AC and its composites from various natural waste biomasses, methods of surface modification and electrode preparation from them, their physicochemical characteristics, measurement techniques, cell configuration, and their applications in supercapacitors. AC is able to be a promising alternative and be employed as an excellent template to produce electrode materials with precise geometries due to their inherent qualities and benefits, such as environmental friendliness, natural abundance, low cost, enabling fast electron and ion diffusion across their structure, inherent mechanical strength and flexibility, and versatility to hybridise with other functional materials. Finally, issues with AC electrodes and potential future developments are explored in this review paper.