Synthesis of Nitrogen-Doped Micro-Mesoporous Carbon for Supercapacitors

Abstract

Supercapacitors are considered to be the most promising power source to meet the pressing requirements of energy storage. Supercapacitive electrode materials, which are closely related to the high-efficiency energy storage, have provoked more interest. Herein, we present a high-capacity supercapacitor material based on the nitrogen-doped micro-mesoporous carbon material, which is synthesized by employing urea-formaldehyde resin as carbon and nitrogen sources, zinc chloride as a porogen and SBA-15 as a hard template. With high surface area, abundant porosity and nitrogen-doped, the composite material exhibits a reversible specific capacitance of 226.3 F g−1 at the current density of 1.0 A g−1 in 6 M KOH electrolyte, and maintains a better high-class capacitance retention capability. These results show that nitrogen-doped micro-mesoporous carbon material represents a promising alternative to efficient electrode material for supercapacitors.