Facile Synthesis of Nitrogen‐Doped Mesoporous Hollow Carbon Nanospheres for High‐Performance Supercapacitors

Abstract

Abstract We report the facile preparation of nitrogen‐doped mesoporous hollow carbon nanospheres (N‐MHCNS) by directly carbonizing hollow polypyrrole nanospheres that are derived from in situ polymerization. Here, we use a novel soft template (PMMA‐PBMA‐PMAA) as the core. At 700 °C, the obtained N‐MHCNSs (denoted N‐MHCNS700) show superior electrochemical performance. In 1 M HCl electrolyte, N‐MHCNS700 exhibits a capacitance as high as 275.5 F g −1 at a current density of 1 A g −1 and a high rate capability, retaining 54.4 % of the initial capacitance at the current density of 20 A g −1 . In addition, the specific capacitance of N‐MHCNS700 is approximately 100 % retained at a current density of 10 A g −1 after 5000 cycles, indicating amazing stable cycling performance. The excellent electrochemical performance can be derived from the amorphous graphitic carbon, hollow nanosphere structure, mesoporous properties, and nitrogen doping effect.