Almond-derived origami-like hierarchically porous and N/O co-functionalized carbon sheet for high-performance supercapacitor

A rational design of functional carbon materials holds great importance for supercapacitor. In this study, almond, a protein rich natural biomass, is processed to a graphene-like nitrogen-doped porous carbon via a hard-templating and simultaneous chemical activation process. The resultant carbon material (Alm-P-K-800) exhibits favorable features such as a folding-sheet-like morphology, a high specific surface area of 1877.8 m(2) g(-1), a hierarchical porous structure with both macro-pores and micro-pores, and a nitrogen-doped and oxygen-functionalized carbon surface. By leveraging of the synergistic effects of these characteristics, a remarkable capacitance of 228 F g(-1) at 1 A g(-1) with excellent rate performance is achieved. This novel 'all-in-one' synthesis route may present a universal strategy for the production of high-performance porous carbon materials for diverse applications in energy storage and beyond.