Nitrogen and sulfur dual-doped porous carbon derived from coffee waste and cysteine for electrochemical energy storage

Abstract

N/S dual-doped carbon materials were synthesized from coffee waste and cysteine for use as porous carbon electrode materials for electric double layer capacitors. The capacitance of the carbon materials was calculated from the experimental results of cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge-discharge tests. The N/S-doped carbon materials obtained from heat-treatment with cysteine exhibited a higher discharge capacitance, 71.3 F/g, than that of the carbon without the cysteine treatment, 43.8 F/g, at 1 A/g. This is because the N/S dual-doped carbons possess a higher wettability than that of the other carbon material, even though the N/S doping with cysteine destroys the porous carbon structure, which reduces the BET surface area of the carbon samples. Elemental analysis was performed to determine the portions of nitrogen and sulfur elements doped into the carbon. From the XPS results, various states of nitrogen and sulfur elements were identified, and SEM/TEM images were obtained to observe their morphologies and porous structures.