Facile synthesis of porous carbon materials with extra high nitrogen content for supercapacitor electrodes

• Published in: New journal of chemistry Vol. 43; no. 9; pp. 3713 - 3718
• Main Authors: Liu, Yun, Hao, Xiaoqiong, Wang, Likui, Xu, Yingcong, Liu, Jing, Tian, Xiaoning, Yao, Bolong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 2019
• Subjects: Carbon; Carbonization; Electrochemical analysis; Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; Electrodes; Ferric chloride; Iron chlorides; Morphology; Nitrogen; Porous materials; Precursors; Scanning electron microscopy; Sulfuric acid; Supercapacitors; Synthesis; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 1144-0546; 1369-9261
• DOI: 10.1039/C8NJ05718D

Herein, we report the facile synthesis of three-dimensional porous nitrogen-doped carbon materials (PNCs) with extra high nitrogen content by means of directly carbonizing nitrogen-enriched precursors, 1,2,4-benzenetriamine dihydrochloride (BTD) and 1,2,4,5-tetraaminobenzene (TAB) with the aid of FeCl 3 ·6H 2 O. The influence of the carbonization temperature and selection of precursors on the morphologies and properties of PNCs were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), etc. Their electrochemical performance was characterized using galavanostatic charge–discharge (GCD), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). A PNC obtained by carbonizing BTD at 450 °C exhibits a high nitrogen content (about 23.85 wt%), and large surface area (1335 m 2 g −1 ). As a result, it shows a high specific capacitance of 482 F g −1 at a current density of 1 A g −1 in 1 M H 2 SO 4 and excellent cycle stability, 98% retention after 12 000 cycles. Furthermore, a liquid sandwich-structured symmetric supercapacitor assembled from this PNC can power a light stopwatch for about 10 minutes, demonstrating that it is a promising material for supercapacitor electrodes.