Highly Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon Obtained Using Nicotinic Acid by a Template Carbonization Approach for Supercapacitors

Abstract

Nitrogen-enriched porous carbon materials have been successfully synthesized via a template carbonization method, in which nicotinic acid acts as carbon/nitrogen sources, and Ca(OAc)[Formula: see text]H2O as a template. It reveals that the mass ratio of Ca(OAc)[Formula: see text]H2O-to-nicotinic acid and the carbonization temperature dominate the morphology of carbon materials as well as capacitive performances. The sample obtained with the ratio of Ca(OAc)[Formula: see text]H2O-to-nicotinic acid as 1.5 at 800[Formula: see text]C, namely the C-1.5-800 sample, displays the optimum capacitive behavior. It is amorphous with low-graphitization degree, possessing hierarchical porous structure, high nitrogen content (14.5%), large specific surface area (788[Formula: see text]m2 g[Formula: see text]) and high total pore volume (3.56[Formula: see text]cm3 g[Formula: see text]). As a result, the as-made C-1.5-800 electrode exhibits a maximum specific capacitance of 216[Formula: see text]F g[Formula: see text] at a current density of 1[Formula: see text]A g[Formula: see text] in 6[Formula: see text]M KOH aqueous solution. It also displays a maximum energy density of 45.9[Formula: see text]Wh kg[Formula: see text] at 2050[Formula: see text]W kg[Formula: see text] and a maximum power density of 20100[Formula: see text]W kg[Formula: see text] at 19.2[Formula: see text]Wh kg[Formula: see text] at operation temperature of 50[Formula: see text]C in [EMIm]BF4/AN organic electrolyte. More importantly, the C-1.5-800 electrode exhibits an excellent cycling stability within 5000 cycles at 5[Formula: see text]A g[Formula: see text]. This work may enrich and broaden the field of porous carbon and its potential application for supercapacitors under high temperature.