Yudan Yuan1, Yi Sun2,3, Zhichen Feng2,3, Xingjian Li2,3, Ruowei Yi4,5, Wei Sun6, Cezhou Zhao1,2,5, Li Yang4,5. 1. School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China. 2. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215123, China. 3. Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GJ, UK. 4. Department of Chemistry, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215123, China. 5. Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZD, UK. 6. GMCC Electronic Technology Wuxi Co. Ltd., Wuxi 214000, China.
Abstract
A facile and environmentally friendly fabrication is proposed to prepare nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous activated carbon via normal-pressure popping, one-pot activation and nitrogen-doping process. The method adopts paddy as carbon precursor, KHCO3 and dicyandiamide as the safe activating agent and nitrogen dopant. The as-prepared activated carbon presents a large specific surface area of 3025 m2·g-1 resulting from the synergistic effect of KHCO3 and dicyandiamide. As an electrode material, it shows a maximum specific capacitance of 417 F·g-1 at a current density of 1 A·g-1 and very good rate performance. Furthermore, the assembled symmetric supercapacitor presents a large specific capacitance of 314.6 F·g-1 and a high energy density of 15.7 Wh·Kg-1 at 1 A·g-1, maintaining 14.4 Wh·Kg-1 even at 20 A·g-1 with the energy density retention of 91.7%. This research demonstrates that nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous activated carbon derived from paddy has a significant potential for developing a high-performance renewable supercapacitor and provides a new route for economical and large-scale production in supercapacitor application.
A facile and environmentally friendly fabrication is proposed to prepare nitrogenn class="Chemical">-doped hierarchical porous activated carbon via normal-pressure popping, one-pot activation and nitrogen-doping process. The method adopts paddy as carbon precursor, KHCO3 and dicyandiamide as the safe activating agent and nitrogen dopant. The as-prepared activated carbon presents a large specific surface area of 3025 m2·g-1 resulting from the synergistic effect of KHCO3 and dicyandiamide. As an electrode material, it shows a maximum specific capacitance of 417 F·g-1 at a current density of 1 A·g-1 and very good rate performance. Furthermore, the assembled symmetric supercapacitor presents a large specific capacitance of 314.6 F·g-1 and a high energy density of 15.7 Wh·Kg-1 at 1 A·g-1, maintaining 14.4 Wh·Kg-1 even at 20 A·g-1 with the energy density retention of 91.7%. This research demonstrates that nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous activated carbon derived from paddy has a significant potential for developing a high-performance renewable supercapacitor and provides a new route for economical and large-scale production in supercapacitor application.