Preparation and application of PANI/N-doped porous carbon under the protection of ZnO for supercapacitor electrode

Abstract

The N-doped porous carbon (C) with excellent porous structure was preparfig. 4ed and it was derived from a new kind of carbon precursor (porous PANI which was synthesized in saturated NaCl solution). The structure of the N-doped porous carbon (C) was protected during carbonization by a new method (with ZnO coated on the surface of carbon precursor by sol–gel method). Moreover, the novel N-doped porous carbon (C) was used to fabricate compounds (as materials for supercapacitor) together with PANI. Morphology, structural characteristics, electrochemical properties of porous carbon (C), PANI/N-doped porous carbon (CP) and other materials appeared by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) ,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge and discharge (GCD). The N-doped porous carbon kept the excellent morphology and structure of the porous PANI synthesized in saturated NaCl solution and CP5 (PANI/N-doped porous carbon whose mass ratio of aniline and C is 5:1) has a specific capacity of 455 F/g at 1 A/g and cycle performance 83% retention of the initial value at 10 A/g after 800 cycles. The exceptional electrochemical performance indicates that the composite CP5 has good prospects in application of electrode materials for supercapacitor.