Three-dimensional self-doped hierarchical porous mussel nacre-derived carbons for high performance supercapacitors

Abstract

A facile self-doping and self-templating strategy to prepare three-dimensional nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbons via direct carbonization of mussel nacre (MN) is developed. Self-templating can be effective to retain the origin structure and the volatile organic components can serve as carbon precursors for porous carbon. The typical MN-derived carbon (MNC) carbonized at 800 °C is endowed with high surface area of unique hierarchical porosity (consisting of macropores, mesopores and micropores), and high content of heteroatom functionalities (1.30 at.% N). Consequently, the performance in the alkaline KOH electrolyte system was particularly promising with the MNC-6 electrodes showing a high capacitance of 243.7 F g−1 at a current density of 1.0 A g−1 and a promising cycling stability with 85.7% capacitance retention at 1.0 A g−1 after 10,000 cycles. The present work provides a new avenue for facile and high efficient construction of N-doped hierarchical porous carbons for potential supercapacitor.