Porous Carbon Materials Obtained by the Hydrothermal Carbonization of Orange Juice

Porous carbon materials are currently subjected to strong research efforts mainly due to their excellent performances in energy storage devices. A sustainable process to obtain them is hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), in which the decomposition of biomass precursors generates solid products called hydrochars, together with liquid and gaseous products. Hydrochars have a high C content and are rich with oxygen-containing functional groups, which is important for subsequent activation. Orange pomace and orange peels are considered wastes and then have been investigated as possible feedstocks for hydrochars production. On the contrary, orange juice was treated by HTC only to obtain carbon quantum dots. In the present study, pure orange juice was hydrothermally carbonized and the resulting hydrochar was filtered and washed, and graphitized/activated by KOH in nitrogen atmosphere at 800 °C. The resulting material was studied by transmission and scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and nitrogen sorption isotherms. We found porous microspheres with some degree of graphitization and high nitrogen content, a specific surface of 1725 m²/g, and a pore size distribution that make them good candidates for supercapacitor electrodes.