Recently, the development of activated carbon electrodes from agricultural waste biomass for application in carbon-based electrode of supercapacitor is increasing. The use of agricultural waste biomass as a precursor for the production of activated carbon become popular because it is economical, easily available and also beneficial in reducing waste disposal problem in agricultural industries. In this review, the biomass material for activated carbon using various activators is presented. The effects of activating methods which is physical and chemical activation on the properties of activated carbons are reviewed. Carbonaceous materials with high surface area, which is above 1000 m2g-1 and good porosity with total pore volume approximately 1.0 cm3g-1 promote fast ion-transport, making them an ideal choice to be used in supercapacitor. Previous study had shown that different types of activation method influence significantly on the properties of activated carbon produced. Producing a high porosity and high surface area of activated carbon are essentials to fabricate a high quality of supercapacitor. With proper treatment, it is found that many agriculture wastes have high potential and carry good properties as an electrode in supercapacitor.
Derivation of activated carbon from biomass wastes for energy storage applications such as fuel cells and supercapacitors are attracting wide attractions as the world is now demand for other sustainable energy that can help to explore new technologies especially for energy conversion and storage. This is important because the world now is facing a rapid depletion of fossil energy. In this review, an outline of recent trends towards biomass-derived specifically from fruit-based biomass wastes is explained in a holistic manner. Thanks to their high carbon content, high specific surface area and developed porous structure, biomass-derived chars can be treated and converted into carbon. The performance of activated carbon in terms of Brunette Emmet Teller (BET) surface area, micropore volume, total pore volume and specific capacitance has been reported. This review showed that higher BET surface will contribute to higher pore volume in the activated carbon that makes them good candidates for the fabrication of electrodes in supercapacitor applications. This study was focused on providing a detailed comparison of published studies that utilized different physical and chemical routes and their effect of modification such as various activation temperatures and the ratio of activating agents towards the performance of the activated carbon under different parameters. Implementing chemical routes with an ideal 600°C – 850°C and inclusion ratio might be effective to produce high performance activated carbon.