Integrated synthesis of nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon from melamine resins with superior performance in supercapacitors

Abstract

An integrated and reproducible chemical process was developed to fabricate the N-doped mesoporous carbon by using melamine resin as nitrogen source. A two-dimensional carbon framework of graphene sheets was also used as a conductive substrate in order to boost the performance of such nitrogen-doped carbon materials. Compared with the pure mesoporous carbon, the as-made nitrogen-doped carbon/graphene electrode materials exhibited suitable pore size distribution, ordered meso-structure, and uniformly dispersed N atoms with tunable doping amount. These unique properties make them promising electrodes for supercapacitors with superior performance. In particular, N-doped carbon and decorated graphene electrodes could deliver the specific capacitance of 238 and 289 F/g at the current density of 0.2 A/g in a three-electrode system. The results from symmetrical two-electrode revealed that the highly N-doped carbon electrodes offered excellent rate capability (ca. 78% retention as the current density increased from 0.1 to 20 A/g) and superior cycling performance (ca. 91% retention after 1000 cycles). © 2014 American Chemical Society.