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Nitrogen-doped porous carbon using ZnCl2 as activating agent for high-performance supercapacitor electrode materials

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Abstract

A facile method for synthesising porous carbon materials with high nitrogen content is employed in this study using 1H-Benzotriazole (BTA) as carbon precursor and ZnCl2 as active agent at 600–800 °C for 2 h under N2 atmosphere. Pure BTA completely degrades even at low temperature (270 °C) under inert gas, but ZnCl2 can convert the more organics to carbon because of its dehydration. The obtained NC-2-700 sample possesses a high specific surface area (1228 m2·g−1) and a nitrogen content up to 10.27 wt%. Moreover, the N-doped carbon exhibits a good electrochemical property (with a specific capacitance of 332 F·g−1 at the current density of 0.5 A·g−1), as well as an outstanding cycle stability (96.5% of the initial specific capacitance is maintained after 5000 cycles at 1 A·g−1). In addition, this obtained symmetric ultra-capacitor prepared from the NC-2-700 sample exhibits a highest energy density of 12.94 Wh·kg−1 with a power density of 375 W·kg−1 at a current density of 1 A·g−1. And even this NC-2-700//NC-2-700 supercapacitor gives 5.43 Wh·kg−1 with a power density of 3750 W·kg−1 at a high current density of 10 A·g−1. Consequently, these experimental results confirm that the porous carbon materials with high nitrogen content can be a prospective electrode material for supercapacitors.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (Project Number J51503), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Number 20976105), Shanghai Association for Science and Technology Achievements Transformation Alliance Program (Project Number LM201559), Shanghai Municipal Education Commission boosting project (Project Number 15cxy39), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality Project (Project Number 14520503200), Shanghai Talent Development Funding (Project Number 201335), 2016 laboratory technique project-Chemical engineering simulation training centre (Project Number 3921NH163004007).

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  1. School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Haiquan Road 100, Shanghai, 201418, People’s Republic of China

    Haijun Chen, Huanming Wei, Ning Fu, Wei Qian, Yuping Liu, Hualin Lin & Sheng Han

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  1. Haijun Chen
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  2. Huanming Wei
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Correspondence to Hualin Lin or Sheng Han.

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Chen, H., Wei, H., Fu, N. et al. Nitrogen-doped porous carbon using ZnCl2 as activating agent for high-performance supercapacitor electrode materials. J Mater Sci 53, 2669–2684 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1453-3

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