Facile Self-Template Synthesis of a Nitrogen-Rich Nanoporous Carbon Wire and Its Application for Energy Storage Devices
Bingyi Yan, Huiling Huang, Xinyu Qin, Shijian Xiu, Juhyung Choi, Dongjin Ko, Tianyu Chen, Wang Zhang, Bo Quan, Guowang Diao, Xuanzhen Jin, Yuanzhe Piao
Abstract
Heteroatom doping, pore engineering, and morphology design are efficient strategies to develop a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors. In the periodic table of the elements, nitrogen is adjacent to carbon and their atomic radii are close to each other; therefore, the doping of nitrogen atoms can cause the lattice of the carbon material to be substantially distorted. In this study, a facile one-step self-template strategy for synthesizing a highly nitrogen-doped nanoporous carbon wire (denoted as HNPCW) of ∼100 nm diameter and ∼10 μm length is successfully developed. Depending on rational design and the control of reaction conditions, the highest surface area reaches 2149 m2 g–1, and the nitrogen content exceeds 16.8%. It is worth noting that the morphology of the materials varies as the contents of nitrogen change. The optimal HNPCW possesses a high specific capacitance of 587.8 F g–1 at 1 A g–1 in a three-electrode system, 118.9 F g–1 at 0.5 A g–1 in a two-electrode system, and excellent cycle stability (97.79% after 10 000 cycles at 5 A g–1). Even at a high specific power of 30.0 kW kg–1, the specific energy reaches 27.1 Wh kg–1, portraying great potential to be an ideal candidate for practical supercapacitors.