Alkaline leaching-carbon from sugarcane solid waste for screen-printed carbon electrode

In this research, carbon powder produced from bagasse, solid waste of sugarcane production, was used as raw material for creating screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE), which is named SPAC600. Bagasse was carbonized at 600 °C under N2 flows to produce carbon. The carbonized bagasse was then treated with alkaline solution to leach out the impurities; therefore, the result, AC600, provides a significant increase in surface area from 24.8 to 197.10 m2 g−1. Alkaline treatment also changed the morphology of carbon powder into smaller flakes and removed C–H- aromatic vibration and C–O stretching within Fourier transformed- infrared (FTIR) spectra. The treatment also increases the electric conductivity from 10.01 S/cm to 25.39 S/cm. Alkaline leaching also increases the electrochemical performance of the electrode, proven by the significant increase of anodic current density, Ipa from 5.5 to 12.8 μA, for screen-printed carbon without alkaline leaching (SPC600) and SPAC600, respectively. Furthermore, ferrocene addition to the working electrode (WE) part of the prepared SPCE even increases the electrochemical performance as an analytic electrode, proven by the anodic current density of 173.0 μA. Even though the performance is still lower than a commercial SPCE which provides anodic current density up to 2000 μA, further treatment and modification may enhance the performance of the SPAC600