Electronic Supplementary Information

Waste Coffee Management: Deriving High-Performance Supercapacitors

using Nitrogen-Doped Coffee Derived Carbon

Jonghyun Choi1, Camila Zequine1, Sanket Bhoyate1, Wang Lin1, Xianglin Li2, P. K.
Kahol3, Ram K. Gupta1,4*
1
Department of Chemistry, Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS 66762, USA
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66046, USA
3
Department of Physics, Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS 66762, USA
4
Kansas Polymer Research Center, Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS 66762, USA

CP-UA
CP-N
CP-NA
Intensity

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
2  (Degree)

Fig. S1: XRD patterns of carbonized coffee powders.

CP- UA CP- N CP- NA

Intensity (a.u.)
Intensity (a.u.)

Intensity (a.u.)

1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Raman shift (cm-1) Raman shift (cm-1) Raman shift (cm-1)

Fig. S2: Raman spectra of the carbonized coffee powders (CP-UA, CP-N, and CP-NA).
 3 300 mV
2 2 mV

Current (A/g)
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-1.0 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0.0
Potential (V, SCE)

Fig. S3: (a) CV curves of CP-NA at various scan rates.

6
0.0 [a] 0.5 A/g 20 A/g [b] CP-UA

Power density (kW/kg)

5 CP-N
CP-NA
Potential (V)

-0.2 4

-0.4 3

2
-0.6
1
-0.8
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time (s) Energy density (Wh/kg)

Fig. S4: (a) Charge-discharge characteristics of CP-NA at various current densities, and b)
Ragone plot for all the samples.
Volumetric capacitance (F/cm3)

80
CP-UA
CP-N
CP-NA
60

40

20

0
0 5 10 15 20
Current density (A/g)

Fig. S5: Volumetric capacitance versus applied current for all the samples.
 250

Specific capacitance (F/g)

200

150

100 2.90 mg/cm2

7.54 mg/cm2
50 9.32 mg/cm2
11.04 mg/cm2
12.37 mg/cm2
0
0 5 10 15
Current density (A/g)

Fig. S6: Variation of specific capacitance as a function of mass loading and current desnity.

15 300 mV [a] 150 300 mV [b]

Current density (A/g)

10 2 mV
Current (mA/cm2) 100 2 mV
5 50

0 0
-50
-5
-100
-10
-150
-15
-200
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
Potential (V, SCE) Potential (V, SCE)

75
[c]
Specific capacitance (F/g)

60

45

30

15

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Scan rate (mV/s)

Fig. S7: CV curves of CP-NA at various scan rates based on (a) weight and (b) area, and (c)
variation of specific capacitance versus scan rate.
 1.4 1.4
[a] 0.2A/g 20A/g [b] 1 mA/cm2 100 mA/cm2
1.2 1.2
1.0 1.0

Potential (V)
Potential (V)
0.8 0.8
0.6 0.6
0.4 0.4
0.2 0.2
0.0 0.0
0 200 400 600 800 0 500 1000 1500
Time (s) Time (s)

Specific capacitance (F/g)

[c]
60

45

30

15

0
0 5 10 15 20
Current density (A/g)

Fig. S8: Galvanostatic charge-discharge curves of CP-NA at various current densities based on
(a) weight and (b) area, and (c) variation of specific capacitance versus applied current.
Table S1: Atomic content of coffee derived carbons.

Sample Content (%) Content of N Species (%)

C (%) N (%) O (%) Pyridinic Pyrrolic Graphitic Oxidized
CP-UA 72.07 1.73 26.2 0.55 0.47 0.42 0.29
CP-N 77.37 10.18 12.45 3.82 2.13 3.87 0.36
CP-NA 86.05 2.80 11.15 0.52 1.62 0.11 0.55
Table S2: Comparison of Energy and power density with previous carbon-based supercapacitor
devices.

Energy density Power density

Device Reference
(Wh/kg) (W/kg)
Waste Coffee
12.8 6,643 This work
derived carbon
Cherry stone derived 1
5 ~2,000
carbon
2
Sisal leaves carbon ~11.5 ~11,000
Lignin derived 3
12.8 ~10,500
nanoporous carbon
Bio-oil derived
4
hierarchical porous 8.1 4,702
carbon
4
Coal tar pitch carbon 6 ~2,500
Carbon from 5
7 3,600
sugarcane bagasse
6
Fruit stone carbon ~11 ~3,100
Commercial
6
microporous carbon 5 ~3,000
Norit
Sago bark derived 6
5 400
carbon
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