One-step synthesis of nitrogen-doped porous carbon for high performance supercapacitors

Abstract

We report a simple synthesis of nitrogen-doped porous carbon materials by one-step carbonization of pure sodium glutamate in inert atmosphere without any activation. The surface area, pore structure, and electrochemical properties of the resultant carbon materials can be tuned simply by changing the carbonization temperature. The carbon materials are characterized by heteroatom (N, O) doping, interconnected porous carbons framework with high surface area (1873 m2 g−1), large pore volume (1.10 cm3 g−1), and high yield. While the nitrogen content decreases from 7.15 at% at 600 °C to 4.03 at% at 900 °C. These features confer the as-obtained nitrogen-doped porous-carbon materials with high specific capacitance, good rate capability, and excellent cycling stability (88.15% of capacitance retention after 5000 cycles) in 2 M NaNO3 electrolyte.