N- and O-doped carbonaceous nanotubes from polypyrrole for potential application in high-performance capacitance

Abstract

By the reactive self-degraded template-directed synthesis and further carbonization, N- and O-doped carbonaceous nanotubes from conducting polymer (polypyrrole) precursor have been prepared. After being chemically activated by KOH, specially, with the weight ratio of KOH to polypyrrole nanotubes of 2 and 4, two samples of activated carbonaceous polypyrrole nanotubes (ACPN-2 and ACPN-4) with an uncapped morphology were obtained. The ACPN-4 possesses high heteroatom content (14.85%) and specific surface area (1226 m2 g−1), and exhibits a reversible capacitance of 470 F g−1 at the current density of 0.2 A g−1, and 280 F g−1 even at a higher current density of 10 A g−1. Moreover, these nanotubular structured materials have also shown excellent cycling performance with no capacitance loss over 10,000 cycles. Furthermore, these carbonaceous nanotubes achieved a high CO2 adsorption uptake of 3.9 mmol g−1 at 273 K and 2.5 mmol g−1 at 298 K.