Nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide as electrode material for high rate supercapacitors

Abstract

Nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxides (N-rGOs) have been synthesized at various temperatures by a facile hydrothermal route involving the doping of an aqueous graphene oxide dispersion with amitrole. The N-rGOs had a nitrogen content ranging from 10.9 to 13.4 at%, which is among the highest reported for this type of material. The predominant nitrogen species were pyridinic followed by amide/amine, pyrrolic, and quaternary nitrogen. Cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy measurements performed on the N-doped and nitrogen-free samples revealed that nitrogen fixation provided the material with pseudocapacitive behaviour and improved ion diffusion and charge propagation. A high specific capacitance of 244Fg−1 was obtained at a high scan rate of 100mVs−1 for the N-rGO with the highest nitrogen content. An outstanding rate capability for the N-rGO, with increasing scan rates, of 98% was obtained, while only 70% was obtained for the non-doped rGO. 92% of the initial capacitance was maintained over 5000 charge/discharge cycles due to the high stability of the electrochemically active nitrogen moieties. Hydrothermal synthesis using amitrole as a nitrogen dopant represents a simple route for the synthesis of graphene with very high nitrogen content and exceptional behaviour for use as electrode material in high-power supercapacitors.