Abstract. Energy and power capability of
supercapacitors are important because of their use in providing backup power or
pulse current to electronic/electric products or systems. The choice of the
electrode materials, such as carbons, metal oxides or conducting polymers
determines their mechanism of energy storage process. This short review focuses
on the supercapacitors using porous carbon electrodes prepared from fibers of
oil palm empty fruit bunches. The specific energy and specific power of these
supercapacitors were analyzed to observe the change in their trend with respect
to the electrode preparation parameters affecting the porosity, structure,
surface chemistry and electrical conductivity of electrodes, and hence
influence the energy and power capability of supercapacitors. This review finds
that the trend of change in specific energy and specific power is not in favor
of the expectation that both the specific energy and specific power should be
in increasing trend with a significant progress.
Keywords: Supercapacitor, Carbon
electrode, Specific energy, Specific power, Oil palm empty fruit bunches.
