Sustainable lignin precursors for tailored porous carbon-based supercapacitor electrodes

Sustainable materials are attracting a lot of attention since they will be critical in the creation of the next  generation of products and devices. In this study, hydrogels were effectively synthesized utilizing lignin, a non-valorised biopolymer from the paper industry. This study proposes a method based on utilizing lignin to create  highly swollen hydrogels using poly(ethylene) glycol diglycidyl ether (PEGDGE) as a crosslinking agent. The  influence of different crosslinker ratios on the structural and chemical properties of the resultant hydrogels was  investigated. Pore size was observed to be lowered when the amount of crosslinker was increased. The inclusion  of additional hydrophilic groups in the hydrogel network decreased the swelling capacity of the hydrogels as the  crosslinking density increases. These precursor materials were carbonised and electrochemically tested for  application as electrodes for supercapacitors with capacitance characterized as a function of crosslinker ratio.