In situ fabrication of nitrogen doped porous carbon nanorods derived from metal-organic frameworks and its application as supercapacitor electrodes

Abstract

In this work, nitrogen doped porous carbon nanorods for supercapacitor electrodes have been successfully fabricated through solvothermal method and direct pyrolysis of metal-organic frameworks under N2 atmosphere. In the procedure, in-situ synthesis of two Zn-based metal-organic frameworks (Zn-BTC and ZIF-8) is the key point to obtain high N doping content and stable porous structure. The prepared porous nanorods were characterized by power X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm. The results show that the nitrogen doped porous carbon nanorods, as the supercapacitor electrodes, exhibit good performance with a specific capacitance of 162 F g−1 at 1.25 A g−1, and the excellent cycle performance (capacity retention even increases to 107% after 10000 cycles at 20 A g−1) due to the unique pore structure.