High Efficiency Biomass-Based Metal-Free Catalyst as a Promising Supercapacitor Electrode for Energy Storage

Abstract

In this study, spent tea waste (STW) was utilized as an environmentally friendly, efficient, cost-effective, and SWT-H3PO4-Cat catalyst for the sodium boron hydride methanolysis process. Moreover, this synthesized catalyst was utilized as an active material of supercapacitor to store electricity and resulting in a material that served as a catalyst and a supercapacitor at the same time. The most active catalyst; It was obtained by carbonization for 40 minutes at 400oC after treatment with 7M H3PO4. The synthesized catalyst s performance in the methanolysis reaction was investigated for hydrogen production. Afterwards, methanolysis processes were carried out at four various temperatures with the obtained SWT-H3PO4-Cat catalyst and reusability were tested. The FTIR, XRD, and SEM-EDX analyses were used to analyze the STW-H3PO4-Cat catalyst that showed the best catalytic activity. Consequently, the hydrogen generation rates (HGR) were found to be 52912 and 76640 mLmin-1 g.cat-1 for 30oC and 60oC, respectively.