Synthesis of boron, nitrogen co-doped porous carbon from asphaltene for high-performance supercapacitors

• Published in: Chinese physics B Vol. 23; no. 8; pp. 60 - 64
• Main Authors: Zhou, Ying, Wang, Dao-Long, Wang, Chun-Lei, Jin, Xin-Xin, Qiu, Jie-Shan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.08.2014
• Subjects: Asphalts; Boron; Capacitance; Capacitors; Carbon; Functional groups; Supercapacitors; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy; 共掺杂; 合成; 多孔碳; 氮含量; 沥青质; 电化学性能; 硼酸; 超级电容器
• ISSN: 1674-1056; 2058-3834; 1741-4199
• DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/23/8/086101

Oxidized asphaltene （OA）, a thermosetting material with plenty of functional groups, is synthesized from asphaltene （A） using HNO3]HzSO4 as the oxidizing agent. Boron, nitrogen co-doped porous carbon （BNC-OA） is prepared by carbonization of the mixture of boric acid and OA at 1173 K in an argon atmosphere. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS） characterization reveals that the BNC-OA has a nitrogen content of 3.26 at.% and a boron content of 1.31 at.%, while its oxidation-free counterpart （BNC-SA） has a nitrogen content of 1.61 at.% and a boron content of 3.02 at.%. The specific surface area and total pore volume of BNC-OA are 1103 m2·g^-1 and 0.921 cm3·g^-1, respectively. At a current density of 0.1 A·g^-1, the specific capacitance of BNC-OA is 335 F·g^-1 and the capacitance retention can still reach 83% at 1 A·g^-1. The analysis shows that the superior electrochemical performance of the BNC-OA is attributed to the pseudocapacitance behavior of surface heteroatom functional groups and an abundant pore-structure. Boron, nitrogen co-doped porous carbon is a promising electrode material for supercapacitors.