One-step synthesis of nitrogen-doped wood derived carbons as advanced electrodes for supercapacitor applications

Abstract

In this work, nitrogen-doped wood derived carbon (NWDC) as an electrode material for supercapacitors is prepared for the first time by a one-step method. NWDC greatly inherits the hierarchical porous structure of pure natural wood, which provides a sufficient electrode-electrolyte interface for the accumulation of charges or ions. In addition, nitrogen doping can affect the interaction between ions and electrodes in the electrolyte, forcing the increase of ion density on the electrode surface, which is conducive to the rapid and effective transport of electrolyte ions in NWDC, showing an enhanced electrochemical performance. The electrochemical results demonstrate that NWDC has an excellent specific capacitance (211 F g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹), good rate performance (57.35% from 1 to 12 A g⁻¹) and tremendously high cycling stability (93.24% after 7500 cycles). The present work provides a new avenue for facile and highly efficient construction of nitrogen doped wood derived carbon for potential supercapacitor applications.