Abstract
Nitrogen-doped activated carbon (NAC) with different nitrogen contents have been successfully prepared by a facile and cost-effective approach of high-temperature pyrolysis of polyaniline (PANI)/activated carbon (AC) composites. The NAC were employed as negative additives of lead-acid or lead–carbon batteries that can not only restrain hydrogen evolution, but also enhance the specific capacitance and cycle life. The electrochemical measurements results show that the obtained nitrogen-doped activated carbon has higher over-potential toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in sulfuric acid solution compared to original activated carbon. What’s more, the specific capacitance value of nitrogen-doped activated carbon is 51.57% higher than the original activated carbon in sulfuric acid solution. The XPS results show that these excellent electrochemical properties of the nitrogen-doped activated carbon is due to the role of nitrogen in the material, especially pyrrole nitrogen which is easy to combine with hydrogen atoms in the hydrogen evolution reaction process, thereby inhibiting the hydrogen atoms into hydrogen gas, and inhibiting the hydrogen evolution in sulfuric acid solution. Therefore, the NAC can be considered as promising negative additives for lead-acid batteries.
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