The development of nanostructured functional materials derived from biomass and/or waste is of growing importance for creating sustainable energy-storage systems. In this study, nanoporous carbonaceous materials containing numerous heteroatoms were fabricated from waste coffee grounds using a top-down process via simple heating with KOH. The nanoporous carbon nanosheets exhibited notable material properties such as high specific surface area (1960.1 m2 g–1), numerous redox-active heteroatoms (16.1 at% oxygen, 2.7 at% nitrogen, and 1.6 at% sulfur), and high aspect ratios (>100). These unique properties led to good electrochemical performance as supercapacitor electrodes. A specific capacitance of ~438.5 F g–1 was achieved at a scan rate of 2 mV s–1, and a capacitance of 176 F g–1 was maintained at a fast scan rate of 100 mV s–1. Furthermore, cyclic stability was achieved for over 2000 cycles.

• Min Hong Park(Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea)
• Young Soo Yun(Department of Chemical Engineering, Kangwon National University, Samcheok 245-711, Korea)
• Se Youn Cho(Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea)
• Na Rae Kim(Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea)
• Hyoung-Joon Jin(Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea) Corresponding Author