Improvement of physical properties of zinc oxide and activated carbon nanocomposite for use in supercapacitor electrode

In this research, a nanocomposite of zinc oxide and activated carbon (ZnO/AC) was synthesized and used in a supercapacitor electrode. Activated carbon was prepared from soft almond skin powder, and then assorted with zinc nitrate solution. During the chemical activation. The porous structures and high specific surface area were obtained. By the saturation time in the activated carbon powder. Structural characteristics of activated carbon and ZnO/AC nanocomposites are determined by surface area, pore volume; X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The ZnO/AC nanocomposite with a high specific surface has good efficiency for use in supercapacitor electrode materials. The XRD results of ZnO/AC nanocomposites showed that all the peaks are indexed through the hexagonal phase of ZnO. The nanocomposite of ZnO/Ac as an electrode is prepared from a 1:1 to 1:2 ratio and the activity of prepared electrodes is fabricated by charge-discharge (GCD), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) using 6 mol KOH as electrolyte. The maximum capacity of the electrodes showed 128.6 F/g at the rate of 10 mV/s. The results show that the specific capacitance of prepared electrodes is stable to 2000 cycles (at 100 mV/s), which indicates that the expedient displays high cycle life and good electrochemical reversibility properties.