Waste coffee grounds-derived nanoporous carbon nanosheets for supercapacitors

The development of nanostructured functional materials derived from biomass and/or waste is of growing importance for creating sustainable energy-storage systems. In this study, nanoporous carbonaceous materials containing numerous heteroatoms were fabricated from waste coffee grounds using a top-down process via simple heating with KOH. The nanoporous carbon nanosheets exhibited notable material properties such as high specific surface area (1960.1 m2 g−1), numerous redox-active heteroatoms (16.1 at% oxygen, 2.7 at% nitrogen, and 1.6 at% sulfur), and high aspect ratios (>100). These unique properties led to good electrochemical performance as supercapacitor electrodes. A specific capacitance of ~438.5 F g−1 was achieved at a scan rate of 2 mV s−1, and a capacitance of 176 F g−1 was maintained at a fast scan rate of 100 mV s−1. Furthermore, cyclic stability was achieved for over 2000 cycles.