Preparation of 3D carbon conductive composite derived from nitrogen-rich resin/MWCNT and its application in supercapacitors

Abstract

Carbon materials are considered as one of the promising materials in supercapacitors because of their distinctive electrochemical properties. In this study, N-doped carbon electrode materials, derived from melamine formaldehyde (MF) resin, a high-performance and N-rich thermosetting resin, used as an electrode active material for supercapacitor application. A simple method was adopted to fabricate the three-dimensional conductive composite materials by mixing the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to the carbon material with different mass ratios. It was found that the reactant ratio of MF and CNT plays an important role in the improvement of electrochemical behavior. The sample of 7% CNT@MF-C showed a gravimetric specific capacitance of 319.6 F g−1 in 6 M KOH aqueous electrolyte at a current density of 0.5 A g−1, as well as capacitance retention of 97.8% after 10,000 cycles. A remarkable improvement in the electrochemical behavior was obtained by modifying the surface chemistry as well as the electrical conductivity of the carbon. The assembled symmetrical supercapacitors have a high energy density and power density of 9.53 Wh kg−1 and 400 W kg−1, respectively. The presence of porous carbon with intrinsic nitrogen-containing groups makes them more useful as high-performance supercapacitors. Overall, this simple approach exhibits great potential for carbon-based high-performance supercapacitor application.