Chapter 8: Advances in Low-carbon Supercapacitors Based on Nanocomposites: Advantages and Limitations

In recent times, plant-based (biopolymers), cost-effective, and wide-source porous carbon has gathered great attention for application in low-carbon supercapacitors. Despite its widely known benefits like environmental benignity, biodegradability, high specific surface area and unique pore structure, the specific capacitance and energy density values are limited, causing a hindrance for its large-scale commercialization. Therefore, the idea of compounding porous carbon with other carbon-derived nanostructures, metal oxides, and layered double hydroxides, is of significant interest to improve the overall electrochemical performance of low-carbon supercapacitors. In this chapter, various biopolymers and derived porous carbon are introduced in detail and the applications and research progress of porous carbon-based electrode materials in electrochemical energy storage in recent years are reviewed. The effect of incorporating graphene, metal oxides, and layered double hydroxides in porous carbon (porous carbon/graphene, porous carbon/metal oxide and porous carbon/layered double hydroxide composites) on the supercapacitive performance are briefly discussed. Finally, this chapter summarizes the current research status of low-carbon supercapacitors based on nanocomposites, and the advantages and challenges to promote their application in the field of electrochemical energy storage.