Aminal/Schiff‐Base Polymer to Fabricate Nitrogen‐Doped Porous Carbon Nanospheres for High‐Performance Supercapacitors. Issue 18 (29th September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Fei; Huang, Xinhua; Wang, Nuoya; Zhu, Xingxing; Chan, Vincent; Zhao, Ruikun; Chao, Yimin
• Is Part Of: ChemElectroChem. Volume 7:Issue 18(2020)
• Page Start: 3859
• Page End: 3865
• Publication Date: 2020-09-29
• Subjects: aminal bonding -- activation -- nanosphere -- porous carbon -- supercapacitors; Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; 541.37
• DOI: 10.1002/celc.202001165
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2196-0216

Abstract

Abstract: In this study, a polymer‐containing aminal and imine (C=N) linkages was synthesized from the reaction between p‐phthalaldehyde and 2, 6‐diaminepyridine through nucleophilic addition. Subsequently, nitrogen‐doped carbon nanospheres (N‐CNSs) were fabricated by a process of sequential potassium hydroxide (KOH) activation and direct carbonization of the polymer. Interestingly, the mass ratio ( x ) of the polymer to KOH was found to play a crucial role in dictating the porosity, surface chemistry, and capacitive performance of the resulting CNSs. The optimization of x led to the formation of N‐CNS‐2 with a significantly larger specific surface area (809 m 2 g −1, 98 % microporous content) and a high specific capacitance (732 F g −1 ) at 8 A g −1 in 6 M KOH aqueous electrolyte. In addition, the electrode fabricated with N‐CNS‐2 showed excellent cycling stability along with 98 % of the initial specific capacitance after 5000 charge/discharge cycles. The carbon precursor with the aminal linkage network has shown very promising potential in energy storage materials. Abstract : Better together : Coexistence of intramolecular imine (C=N) and aminal bonds in the polymer precursor aids the production of N‐doped porous carbon for high‐performance supercapacitors.