Integrated\nSynthesis of Nitrogen-Doped Mesoporous\nCarbon from Melamine Resins with Superior Performance in Supercapacitors

Abstract

An\nintegrated and reproducible chemical process was developed to\nfabricate the N-doped mesoporous carbon by using melamine resin as\nnitrogen source. A two-dimensional carbon framework of graphene sheets\nwas also used as a conductive substrate in order to boost the performance\nof such nitrogen-doped carbon materials. Compared with the pure mesoporous\ncarbon, the as-made nitrogen-doped carbon/graphene electrode materials\nexhibited suitable pore size distribution, ordered meso-structure,\nand uniformly dispersed N atoms with tunable doping amount. These\nunique properties make them promising electrodes for supercapacitors\nwith superior performance. In particular, N-doped carbon and decorated\ngraphene electrodes could deliver the specific capacitance of 238\nand 289 F/g at the current density of 0.2 A/g in a three-electrode\nsystem. The results from symmetrical two-electrode revealed that the\nhighly N-doped carbon electrodes offered excellent rate capability\n(ca. 78% retention as the current density increased from 0.1 to 20\nA/g) and superior cycling performance (ca. 91% retention after 1000\ncycles).