Electric double layer capacitors employing nitrogen and sulfur co-doped, hierarchically porous graphene electrodes with synergistically enhanced performance

Abstract

Abstract Hierarchically porous graphene nanosheets co-doped with nitrogen and sulfur are synthesized via a simple hydrothermal method, followed by a pore activation step. Pore architectures are controlled by varying the ratio of chemical activation agents to graphene, and its influence on the capacitive performance is evaluated. The electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) assembled with optimized dual-doped graphene delivers a high specific capacitance of 146.6 F g−1 at a current density of 0.8 A g−1, which is higher than that of cells with un-doped and single-heteroatom doped graphene. The EDLC with dual-doped graphene electrodes exhibits stable cycling performance with a capacitance retention of 94.5% after 25,000 cycles at a current density of 3.2 A g−1. Such a good performance can be attributed to synergistic effects due to co-doping of the graphene nanosheets and the presence of hierarchical porous structures.