Electrochemical Behavior of Phoenix tree leaves derived Porous Carbon Material as Electrode for Supercapacitors

Due to the limitation of hydrolysis voltage, the operating voltage of aqueous electrolyte-based supercapacitors generally does not exceed 1.2 V, which severely limits the application of aqueous supercapacitors. In fuel cell vehicles (FCV), supercapacitors are generally used as peaking power sources (PPS) with an aqueous electrolyte. In this study, an ultra-capacitive/oxygen reduction bifunctional electrode material was designed and prepared as a fuel cell cathode material to realize the functions of fuel cell and PPS in the same electrochemical cell, thus simplifying the structure of the FCV energy subsystem. In this work, a porous material (PC) was prepared by hydrothermal carbonization with phoenix tree leaves being a carbon source. PC has an oxygen reduction electrocatalytic activity similar to commercial 30 wt.% Pt/C. The change in electrode potential is accompanied by the generation of a charging current, the magnitude of which is related to the rate of change of electrode potential. Using PC as a fuel cell cathode material is expected to simplify the structure of the FCV energy subsystem.