Preparation of Nitrogen Doped Carbon Materials and Analysis of Their Electrochemical Performance

This paper focused on the preparation and structural and electrochemical characterization of carbon and N-doped carbon as supercapacitve electrode materials. The electrode materials are prepared through crushing, oxidative pretreatment, and bonding, carbonization, and activation, polymer materials processed into carbon-based materials. To make a carbon aerogel electrode material, the N-rich precursors approach was employed to change the obtained carbon substrate material by nitrogen doping. SEM and XRD analyses of morphology and crystal structure revealed that nitrogen was introduced into the doped sample, and that the carbon electrode surface was covered with cloudy clusters and non-uniform aggregated carbon particles, and that the N-doped carbon sample had a spongy structure with interlaced graphite-like thin sheets with higher roughness and porosity, as well as a larger surface. Electrochemical studies of prepared carbon based materials using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge discharge (GCD) cycles revealed that N-doped carbon has higher electrochemical capacitive properties than the control sample, as well as desirable fast charge/discharge properties and high power capability for power devices. Specific capacitances of carbon and N-doped carbon were determined to be 13.56 and 192.12 F/ g, respectively, at a current density of 1 A/g, implying that specific capacitances of N-doped samples were increased 14 times over undoped material. After 10000 cycles, the cycling stability of N-doped carbon showed almost 108% capacitance retention. The specific capacitance, power, and energy densities of the N-doped carbon supercapacitve electrode were comparable or better than the other reported values of N-doped porous carbon structures, according to a comparison of the N-doped carbon supercapacitve electrode performance with earlier reports regarding porous carbon materials in supercapacitors. These tests showed that the nitrogen doped carbon electrode material generated using the described approach has a lower internal resistance and can retain good electrochemical performance in supercapacitors.