Sustainable hierarchical porous biomass carbons enriched with pyridinic and pyrrolic nitrogen for asymmetric supercapacitor

Publication date: 5 July 2018
Source:Materials & Design, Volume 149
Author(s): Shuai Yu, Xinqiang Zhu, Gaobo Lou, Yatao Wu, Keting Xu, Yan Zhang, Lumin Zhang, Enhui Zhu, Hao Chen, Zhehong Shen, Binfu Bao, Shenyuan Fu
Asymmetric supercapacitors usually possess higher energy density than symmetric supercapacitors. It's still a big challenge to synthesize low-cost and high-performance negative electrode active materials for the practical production of asymmetric supercapacitors. In this research, ginkgo leaf derived nitrogen-doped carbon was prepared and investigated as an electrode active material for the utilization in supercapacitors. Due to the hierarchical porous architecture, high N content, and ultrahigh ratio (86.5%) of pyridinic plus pyrrolic N species, the ginkgo leaf derived nitrogen-doped carbon material delivered a better specific capacitance (345Fg⁻¹ at 0.2Ag⁻¹) compared to pristine ginkgo leaf derived carbon and KOH-activated carbon without N-doping. Moreover, an asymmetric supercapacitor with this nitrogen-doped carbon as the negative electrode material also displayed an excellent energy density (42.2Whkg⁻¹ at 700Wkg⁻¹) and satisfactory electrochemical cycling reliability. In addition, these performances are also superior to those of some similar carbon materials, manifesting a good potential of this nitrogen-doped carbon to fabricate high-performance asymmetric supercapacitors.

Graphical abstract

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