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Promising nitrogen-doped porous nanosheets carbon derived from pomegranate husk as advanced electrode materials for supercapacitors

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Abstract

Nitrogen-doped porous activated carbons (N-PHACs) have been successfully synthesized using pomegranate husk as carbon precursor via ZnCl2-activation carbonization and subsequent urea-assisted hydrothermal nitrogen-doping method. The obtained N-PHACs possesses abundant mesoporous structure, high specific surface area (up to 1754.8 m2 g−1), pore volume (1.05 cm3 g−1), and nitrogen-doping content (4.51 wt%). Besides, the N-PHACs-based material showed a high specific capacitance of 254 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1 and excellent rate performance (73% capacitance retention ratio even at 20 A g−1) in 2 M KOH aqueous electrolyte, which is attributed to the contribution of double-layer capacitance and pseudocapacitance. The assembled N-PHACs-based symmetric capacitor with a wide operating voltage range of 0–1.8 V exhibits a maximum energy density of 15.3 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 225 W kg−1 and superior cycle stability (only 6% loss after 5000 cycles) in 0.5 M Na2SO4 aqueous electrolyte. These exciting results suggest that the novel N-doping porous carbon material prepared by a green and low-cost design strategy has a potential application as high-performance electrode materials for supercapacitors.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National Science Foundation of China (21664012, 51462032), the program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT15R56), the Innovation Team Basic Scientific Research Project of Gansu Province (1606RJIA324), Key Laboratory of Eco-Environment-Related Polymer Materials (Northwest Normal University) of Ministry of Education, and Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials of Gansu Province.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Lanzhou City University, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Kanjun Sun

  2. Key Laboratory of Eco-Environment-Related Polymer Materials of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials of Gansu Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Jindan Li, Hui Peng, Enke Feng, Guofu Ma & Ziqiang Lei

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  1. Kanjun Sun
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  2. Jindan Li
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  3. Hui Peng
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  5. Guofu Ma
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Correspondence to Kanjun Sun or Guofu Ma.

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Sun, K., Li, J., Peng, H. et al. Promising nitrogen-doped porous nanosheets carbon derived from pomegranate husk as advanced electrode materials for supercapacitors. Ionics 23, 985–996 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-016-1897-5

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