Nitrogen‐doped porous carbon nanofoams with enhanced electrochemical kinetics for superior sodium‐ion capacitor
K. Ramachandran, Gokila Subburam, Xianhu Liu, Minggang Huang, C. F. Xu, Dickon H. L. Ng, Yingxue Cui, Guochun Li, Jingxia Qiu, Chuan Wang, Jiabiao Lian
Abstract
Abstract Many electrochemical energy storage devices, such as batteries, supercapacitors, and metal ion capacitors, rely on effective and inexpensive electrode materials. Herein, we have developed highly active nitrogen‐doped porous carbon nanofoams (NPCNs‐600‐N) for sodium‐ion capacitors (SICs). NPCNs‐600‐N have a highly porous framework, extended interlayer spacing (0.41 nm), and lots of surface functional groups. Accordingly, NPCNs‐600‐N achieves a high reversible capacity (301 mAh·g −1 at 0.05 A·g −1 ), superior rate capability (112 mAh·g −1 at 5.00 A·g −1 ), and ultra‐stable cyclability. The excellent rate and cycling performance originate from the abundant active sites and porous architecture of NPCNs‐600‐N. Furthermore, SICs device is constructed by employing the NPCNs‐600‐N as the battery‐like anode and commercial superconductive carbon black as the capacitive cathode, which delivers high energy/power densities of 92 Wh·kg −1 /15984 W·kg −1 with a remarkable cyclability (93% retention over 5000 cycles at 1.00 A·g −1 ). The methodology of the work enables the simultaneous tuning of the porous architectures and surface function groups of carbon for high‐performance SICs.