A High Yield and Cost-Effective Pathway for the Production of Iron Doped Porous Carbon Derived from Squid Pen As Supercapacitor Electrode Material

Researchers have devoted a lot of time and efforts to demonstrate the energy storage mechanism and improve the performance of biomass-based porous carbon materials for the past decades. But little attention has been paid to the cleanliness and low energy consumption of the manufacturing process, which is very important for the widely application in the practical production of porous carbon materials. As a fishery industry by-product, squid pen value-added utilizations have attracted attentions in recent years. This study reports an iron doped porous carbon derived from squid pen for supercapacitor application. The fabrication process are designed in a scientific and reasonable pathway, in which the activator—FeCl3 transforms into iron oxide improving the electrochemical performance meanwhile avoiding the repeated washing-centrifugation process of residual Fe. Optimal parameters of the synthesis process are Fe doped dosage (Squid pen: FeCl3 = 10:1, w/w), carbonization temperature 700 °C for 1 h and activation temperature 700 °C for 1 h. The specific capacitance of Fe doped carbonized squid pen powder (CSPP) has increased more than 4 times to 131.7 F/g at a current density of 0.2 A/g comparing to the CSPP. Fe doped CSPP also shows a relatively high yield of 30.6