EFFICIENCY OF SUPERCAPACITOR WITH ACTIVATED CARBON FROM TAMARIND SEED

Abstract

Phetchabun Province has sweet tamarind which is an important economic fruit. Tamarind is consumed and processed into tamarind pulp products, the remaining residue is tamarind seeds and pod shells, can be synthesized into activated carbon that has a variety of uses, including in the energy field being used to make the electrodes of supercapacitors. In this research, the efficiency of activated carbon from tamarind seeds was increased by mixing it with carbon black in the following weight ratios: 1.00 : 0.25, 1.00 : 0.67, 1.00 : 1.00,     1.00 : 1.50, and 1.00 : 4.00. The resulting mixture was then coated onto aluminum foil to be used as the electrode of a coin cell supercapacitor. The pore size and surface area were analyzed using a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller; BET analysis found that the activated carbon from tamarind seeds had a smaller pore size than the tamarind fruit shell and tamarind seeds has a much higher surface area than tamarind fruit shell. Therefore, activated carbon from tamarind seeds was chosen for use. In Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images, carbon black can be seen adhering to activated carbon from tamarind seeds. In examining the functional groups using the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) technique, it was found that at the wavenumber position of 3,400 cm^-1 there was an O-H stretch bond, with the ratio 1.00 : 0.67 has the highest absorption. In the range of 1,200-500 cm^-1 is the range with a large number of carbon bonds found that activated carbon from tamarind seeds mixed with carbon black had high adsorption. Analysis of the efficiency of supercapacitors made from tamarind seeds and mixed with carbon black found that they had a higher specific energy density value and a higher specific capacitance value compared to tamarind seeds and carbon black alone. Therefore, activated carbon from tamarind seeds is suitable for application as a supercapacitor.