Synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon spheres using the modified Stöber method for supercapacitors

doi:10.1007/s11706-019-0458-z

Front. Mater. Sci.

2019, Vol. 13

Issue (2) : 156-164 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-019-0458-z

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon spheres using the modified Stöber method for supercapacitors

Meng LIU¹, Lei LIU¹, Yifeng YU¹, Haijun LV¹, Aibing CHEN¹(

), Senlin HOU²(

)

¹. College of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang 050018, China
². The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050000, China

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Abstract

Nitrogen-doped carbon spheres (NCSs) with uniform and regular morphology were facilely prepared by the modified Stöber method. Hexamethylenetetramine (HMT) was selected as the starting material, which decomposed to provide nitrogen and carbon sources for the synthesis of NCSs. The decomposition product formaldehyde polymerized to form carbon skeleton with resorcinol after carbonization, and the in-situ nitrogen doping was achieved with the decomposed nitrogen source. NCSs were obtained with regular spherical morphology, high specific surface area, and suitable nitrogen doping. When used as the electrode material, NCSs exhibited good capacitance and electrochemical stability, indicating that NCSs be the promising candidate for the electrode material of high-performance supercapacitors.

Keywords carbon spheres nitrogen doping supercapacitor

Corresponding Author(s): Aibing CHEN,Senlin HOU

Online First Date: 18 April 2019 Issue Date: 19 June 2019

Cite this article:

Meng LIU,Lei LIU,Yifeng YU, et al. Synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon spheres using the modified Stöber method for supercapacitors[J]. Front. Mater. Sci., 2019, 13(2): 156-164.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/foms/EN/10.1007/s11706-019-0458-z
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foms/EN/Y2019/V13/I2/156

Fig.1 Schematic illustrating the detailed formation of NCSs.

Fig.2 TEM images of NCSs with (a) lower magnification and (b) higher magnification.

Fig.3 (a) The N₂ adsorption?desorption isotherm of NCSs, (b) the corresponding pore-size distribution curves, and (c) the wide-angle XRD pattern of NCSs.

Fig.4 (a) The wide XPS survey spectrum and (b) C 1s, (c) O 1s, (d) N 1s spectra of NCSs.

Fig.5 Electrochemical measurements of NCSs: (a) CV curves under different scan rates; (b) GCD curves at different current densities; (c) the dependency of the specific capacitance of the NCS electrode with the current density; (d) the Nyquist plot measured in the frequency range of 10⁵?10⁻² Hz; (e) the cycle life at 5 A·g⁻¹; (f) the 1st and the 10000th charge?discharge curves.

Tab.1 Comparison of specific capacitances of different carbon materials [¹⁷,³⁹?⁴²]

Fig.6 Electrochemical measurements of NCSsbased on the two-electrode system: (a) CV curves at different scan rates; (b) GCD curves at different current densities; (c) the dependency of the specific capacitance of the NCS electrode with the current density; (d) the Ragone plot.

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