Synthesis and Characteristics of Bamboo-based Activated Carbon as Electrode Materials

¹ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
² Sustainable Process Engineering Research Centre (SPERC), Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
³ Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
⁴ Industrial process Reliability and sustainability (INPRES) research group, School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract

The environmental impact of conventional electrode materials poses a significant challenge to the advancement of sustainable energy storage technologies. In response to the growing demand for eco-friendly alternatives, biomass-derived materials have gained attention as promising candidates. This study explores the use of bamboo as a fast-growing, renewable resource to synthesize activated carbon for supercapacitor electrodes. Through potassium hydroxide (KOH) activation, a porous carbon structure was developed and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The bamboo-derived activated carbon demonstrated excellent electrochemical performance, with optimal results achieved at 7% KOH concentration and a scan rate of 75 mV/s, indicating strong cyclic stability. These findings highlight that the potential of bamboo-derived activated carbon offers as sustainable and high-performance electrode material for next-generation energy storage systems.