Highly Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon Obtained Using Nicotinic Acid by a Template Carbonization Approach for Supercapacitors

Nitrogen-enriched porous carbon materials have been successfully synthesized via a template carbonization method, in which nicotinic acid acts as carbon/nitrogen sources, and Ca(OAc)2⋅H2O as a template. It reveals that the mass ratio of Ca(OAc)2⋅H2O-to-nicotinic acid and the carbonization temperature dominate the morphology of carbon materials as well as capacitive performances. The sample obtained with the ratio of Ca(OAc)2⋅H2O-to-nicotinic acid as 1.5 at 800∘C, namely the C-1.5-800 sample, displays the optimum capacitive behavior. It is amorphous with low-graphitization degree, possessing hierarchical porous structure, high nitrogen content (14.5%), large specific surface area (788m2 g−1) and high total pore volume (3.56cm3 g−1). As a result, the as-made C-1.5-800 electrode exhibits a maximum specific capacitance of 216F g−1 at a current density of 1A g−1 in 6M KOH aqueous solution. It also displays a maximum energy density of 45.9Wh kg−1 at 2050W kg−1 and a maximum power density of 20100W kg−1 at 19.2W...