Excellent electrochemical performance of nitrogen-enriched hierarchical porous carbon electrodes prepared using nano-CaCO3 as template

Recently, tremendous research efforts have been concentrated on developing high-performance electrode materials to meet the ever-increasing energy and power demands in supercapacitors. Herein, we presented a high-capacity supercapacitor material based on nitrogen-enriched hierarchical porous carbons (NHPCs) synthesized by the carbonization of melamine formaldehyde resins using eco-friendly and inexpensive nano-CaCO3 as template. The effects of carbonization temperature and template content on the porous structure and electrochemical characteristics were compared and discussed in detail. The prepared NHPCs possessed large surface area up to 834 m(2) g(-1) and high nitrogen content up to 20.94 wt %. As electrode material for supercapacitors, NHPCs exhibited superior electrochemical performances with high specific capacitance (190 F g(-1) at 20 A g(-1)), outstanding rate capability (80 %), and excellent cycling stability (over 2,000 cycles at 5 A g(-1)) in 1 M sulfuric acid media. The excellent electrochemical performances are due to the synergic effects of unique hierarchical porous microstructure, abundant nitrogen and oxygen functionalities, as well as high degree of graphitization framework.