Nitrogen-doped hierarchically ellipsoidal porous carbon derived from Al-based metal-organic framework with enhanced specific capacitance and rate capability for high performance supercapacitors

Nitrogen-doped porous carbon is prepared by the fusion and carbonization processes of Al-based metal-organic frameworks and melamine, and following removal of thermal decomposed Al2O3 via dissolving in NaOH solution. The hierarchically porous carbon has a large surface area of 1452 m(2) g(-1) with mesopores of suitable size (4.64 nm). It exhibits an enhanced specific capacitance and rate capability of 318.7 F g(-1)(1 A g(-1)) and 210.5 F g(-1) (100 A g(-1)), respectively. The cycling life tests indicate the material offers superior stability with 96.4% retention at ultra-high current density of 100 A g(-1) during 50, 000 cycles. The improved electrochemical properties of this carbon can be attributed to the exogenous nitrogen-doping, special ellipsoid shape and hierarchically porous structure. This method is a new potential strategy to configure unique structure and particular heteroatom-doped porous carbon material for power supercapacitors via the fusion of metal-organic frameworks and heteroatom-containing polymer.