Ultramicroporous N-Doped Activated Carbon Materials for High Performance Supercapacitors

oleh: Taylan Karakoç, Housseinou Ba, Lai Truong Phuoc, Dominique Bégin, Cuong Pham-Huu, Sergey N. Pronkin

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-08-01

Deskripsi

Porous carbon electrode materials are utilized in supercapacitors with very fast charge/discharge and high stability upon cycling thanks to their electrostatic charge storage mechanism. Further enhancement of the performance of such materials can be achieved by doping them with heteroatoms which alter the kinetics of charge/discharge of the adsorbed species and result in pseudocapacitance phenomena. Here, microporous N-doped activated carbons were synthesized by thermochemical activation process. The structure and composition of the final material were adjusted by tuning the synthesis conditions and the choice of precursor molecules. In particular, N-doped activated carbons with a controlled specific surface area in the range of 270–1380 m<sup>2</sup>/g have been prepared by KOH-activation of sucrose/ammonium citrate mixture. By adjusting the composition of precursors, N-doping was varied from ca. 1.5 to 7.3 at%. The role of the components and synthesis conditions on the composition and structure of final products has been evaluated. The N-doped activated carbon with optimized structure and composition has demonstrated an outstanding performance as electrode material for aqueous electrolyte supercapacitors. The specific capacitance measured in a 3-electrode cell with 0.75 mg/cm<sup>2</sup> loading of optimized activated carbon in 1M H<sub>2</sub>SO<sub>4</sub> changed from 359 F/g at 0.5 A/g charging rate to 243 F/g at 20 A/g. Less than 0.01% of capacitance loss has been detected after 1000 charging/discharging cycles.