A novel metal-free ternary core–shell carbon sphere/C3N4/PPy nanocomposite for high-performance supercapacitors

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) has shown great development potential as a supercapacitor electrode material owing to both its high nitrogen content and good chemical stability. However, its specific capacitance remains limited by the poor electronic conductivity and low specific surface area. In this work, a novel ternary core–shell CS/CN/PPy nanocomposite was successfully fabricated via an in-air CVD method and an in situ polymerization route. Both the carbon spheres (CS) and polypyrrole (PPy) play an important role in improving the specific capacitance. Accordingly, the obtained CS/CN/PPy nanocomposite material achieved a high-level specific capacitance, which can reach 353.4 F g⁻¹ at specific current of 1 A g⁻¹.