Towards high performance of supercapacitor: New approach to design 3 D architectured electrodes with bacteria

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>A novel approach of preparing high performance electrodes for supercapacitors was demonstrated by pyrolyzing the hierarchical composite prepared from organic waste and biological resources. Sponge waste was utilized as a carbon source for preparing the interconnected structured electrode materials with high porosity, and needle-like ZnO particles were directly grown on the sponge in order to effectively capture bacteria cells as well as improve the overall redox reactions. The bacteria (<I>E. coli</I> O157:H7) were isolated on a ZnO/sponge composite to endow electrochemically beneficial inherent nitrogen existing in bacteria, as well as to provide bio-templates with the aids of these structural and material benefits, the carbonized material prepared from the bacteria loaded on the ZnO/sponge composite showed a significantly enhanced specific capacitance of 133Fg<SUP>−1</SUP> (at 0.2Ag<SUP>−1</SUP>) and an excellent cycle retention of 89% over long-term cycles (5000 cycles). Our strategy of utilizing recyclable and biomass-derived materials not only can effectively improve the electrochemical performances of supercapacitors but also open an innovative way to address the systemic issues underlying the carbonaceous materials used in supercapacitors.</P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>