An all-in-one material with excellent electrical double-layer capacitance and pseudocapacitance performances for supercapacitor

Abstract 3D porous nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets (PNGs) are facilely prepared via a simple one-step segmented thermal annealing method, using graphene oxide (GO) as carbon source, urea as nitrogen source and pore generator. During the pyrolysis process at 300 °C, urea and oxygenous groups on GO sheets can release large amounts of gas such as NH 3 , HCNO and H 2 O, which act as pore generators to tear and strike GO nanosheets to form 3D porous nanostructured material. When the temperature is increased up to 800 °C, a large amount of nitrogen-containing gas can react with the functional groups on GO. Consequently, the pore forming and nitrogen doping processes of GO are successfully realized and 3D PNGs are prepared. The research results show that the PNGs with an optimal N-doping content of 6.9% display a high surface area of 490.2 m 2  g −1 and excellent electrochemical capacitive performance. The outstanding electrical double-layer capacitance and the increasing pseudocapacitance are attributed to the large specific surface area and the high nitrogen content, respectively. In 1 M H 2 SO 4 electrolyte, the PNGs exhibit a specific capacitance of 337.0 F g −1 and a low capacitance loss of 2.4% after 5000 cycles. Moreover, a symmetric supercapacitor with a cell voltage of 1.3 V is assembled, which displays both high energy density and high power density of 19.9 W h kg −1 and 650 W kg −1 , respectively. The all-in-one material with excellent electrical double-layer capacitance and pseudocapacitance is promising in supercapacitor.