One-step carbonization of a nickel-containing nitrogen-doped porous carbon material for electrochemical supercapacitors

Abstract

In this study, we report a nickel-containing nitrogen-doped porous carbon material. Before this material is composited using a simple high-temperature treatment, it uses polystyrene microspheres as templates to prepare polyaniline microspheres and nickel ion-containing graphene oxide materials. This preparation method is efficient and convenient. We observed that polystyrene microspheres disappeared during high-temperature treatment, and the formation of a porous structure increased the specific surface area of this material. The prepared polyaniline provides N atoms and adds additional capacitance to the material. Besides, during the high-temperature treatment of graphene oxide containing nickel ions, the electrical properties of the material is further increased due to nickel-metal formation after reducing nickel ions. Hence, the Ni-containing N-doped porous carbon material samples showed good specific capacitance (351 F g⁻¹). After 5000 cycles of charge and discharge, the capacitance remained at 92.1%. The calculated energy and power density of the assembled symmetrical supercapacitor were 6.16 W h kg⁻¹ and 5994 W kg⁻¹, respectively. Therefore, in the field of supercapacitors, the Ni-containing N-doped porous carbon materials prepared in this paper have a broad application prospect.