N‐Doped Hierarchical Porous Carbon with Open‐Ended Structure for High‐Performance Supercapacitors. Issue 6 (22nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cao, Shubo; Qu, Ting; Zhang, Ang; Zhao, Yongbin; Chen, Aihua
• Is Part Of: ChemElectroChem. Volume 6:Issue 6(2019)
• Page Start: 1696
• Page End: 1703
• Publication Date: 2019-01-22
• Subjects: block copolymers -- chemical activation -- nanostructures -- nitrogen-doped porous carbon -- supercapacitors; Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; 541.37
• DOI: 10.1002/celc.201801813
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2196-0216

Abstract

Abstract: N‐doped hierarchical porous carbon with an open‐ended nanostructures were prepared through activating hollow carbon spheres (HCS), which were synthesized by using the self‐assembled amphiphilic block copolymer polystyrene‐ b ‐poly(4‐vinyl pyridine) (PS‐ b ‐P4VP) as template and pyrrole as carbon and nitrogen source. Through chemical activation with KOH, the original close‐ended HCS became open‐ended nanostructures (denoted as A‐HCS). This unique structure possesses several important properties as electrode for application in supercapacitors: (a) large surface area (1583 m 2 /g) and pore volume (3.82 cm 3 /g), (b) hierarchical porous carbon with small size (<100 nm) and thin curved walls (thickness <20 nm), (c) high N content (6.73 at%). Compared with the close‐ended HCS, the open‐ended A‐HCS exhibits better performance. The A‐HCS electrode presents a high specific capacitance (284 F/g at 0.2 A/g), good rate capability (70 % retention as the current density increased from 0.2 to 30 A/g), and superior cycling stability (96 % retention after 5000 cycles at 10 A/g). These results demonstrate that the N‐doped hierarchical porous carbon material with open‐ended nanostructure represents an alternative promising candidate as an efficient electrode material for supercapacitors. Abstract : S mall‐sized N‐doped hierarchical porous carbon with open‐ended structure is prepared by a soft template method and chemical activation. Used as electrode in supercapacitors, the materials shows high specific capacitance, good rate capability, and superior cycling stability. These results indicate that this N‐doped hierarchical porous carbon with open‐ended structure is a promising material for high‐performance supercapacitors.