White clover based nitrogen-doped porous carbon for a high energy density supercapacitor electrode. Issue 130 (18th December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ma, Guofu; Zhang, Zhiguo; Sun, Kanjun; Peng, Hui; Yang, Qian; Ran, Feitian; Lei, Ziqiang
• Is Part Of: RSC advances. Volume 5:Issue 130(2015)
• Page Start: 107707
• Page End: 107715
• Publication Date: 2015-12-18
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540.5
• DOI: 10.1039/c5ra20327a
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2046-2069

Abstract

Abstract : We employed the biomaterial white clover as a carbon precursor and ZnCl2 as an activating agent to prepare white clover carbons (WCCs). Abstract : We have employed the biomaterial white clover as a carbon precursor and ZnCl2 as an activating agent to prepare white clover carbons (WCCs). The WCC-2 (mass ratios of white clover and ZnCl2 is 1 : 2) possesses as high as 6.9 wt% nitrogen content and 857 m 2 g −1 BET surface area. Furthermore, it exhibits 233.1 F g −1 specific capacitance at a current density of 1.0 A g −1, even 82.9% capacitance retention at 20 A g −1 in 2 mol L −1 KOH electrolyte. The specific capacitance could remain at almost about 100.0% when the cycle number is between the 200–5000 cycles. Because of the wide potential window (0–2.0 V) and high specific capacitance, the WCC-2//WCC-2 symmetric capacitor shows an energy density of 30–13.1 W h kg −1 under the power outputs of 503.5–9991.5 W kg −1 in 0.5 mol L −1 Na2 SO4 electrolyte. The results demonstrate WCC-2 can be a promising candidate for the electrode material of high performance supercapacitors.