Algae-Derived Nitrogen Self-Doped Porous Carbon Materials with High Supercapacitor Performances
Liang Ge, Yishuang Wu, Fei Wang, Yong Huang
Abstract
The design of carbon materials with high electrochemical performances is desirable to fulfill the demands of next-generation supercapacitors. In this study, porous nitrogen-doped carbon materials were prepared by hydrothermal carbonization and KOH activation using a renewable algae as the nitrogen source and partly carbon source. Addition of glucose as a promoter was found to favor the formation of homogeneous spherical structure and retention of nitrogen in the solid phase, resulting in excellent capacitive properties. Under optimized conditions, the algae-derived nitrogen self-doped porous carbon materials had a high specific surface area of 1893.26 m2/g, a high nitrogen content of 2.9 wt %, and a large gravimetric capacitance of 335.5 F/g in a 6 M KOH aqueous electrolyte. After 5000 cycles, the assembled supercapacitor still maintained 89.41% of the initial capacitance, demonstrating a good cycling stability. The results indicated that renewable algae could be a promising nitrogen source for the production of N-doped carbon materials.