Porous carbon derived from bacteria and yeast: the potential electrode material for the development of symmetric high energy density supercapacitors

The urgent need for sustainable energy sources to meet the increasing demand for energy has prompted the exploration of novel materials that are environmentally friendly, inexpensive, and less hazardous to human life for energy storage applications using the green chemistry approach. These new materials are environmentally friendly, low cost, and less hazardous to human life. Herein, a transformation of Kombucha scoby obtained by fermenting sweet-tea into a porous carbon through KOH activation and carbonization at 600 degrees C is reported. The carbon derived from kombucha (KC) depicted a combination of mesopores and micropores with surface area 262 m2 g-1. The performance of KC electrode is evaluated in three-electrode system and is used as electrode in coin-cell device with 3 M KOH electrolyte. The specific capacitance obtained for three-electrode system is 619 F g-1, and the coin-cell device delivered a capacitance of 227.29 F g-1 at 10 mV s-1. The fabricated symmetric coin-cell-based supercapacitor delivered energy density of 20 W kg-1 for power density of 500 Wh kg-1. The outcome demonstrates the material's durability and the significant potential of neutral electrolytes in high-efficiency energy storage systems.