Soft-Templated Synthesis of Sheet-Like Nanoporous Nitrogen-Doped Carbons for Electrochemical Supercapacitors

Abstract

Nitrogen-doped nanoporous sheet-like carbons are promising electrode materials for high-performance supercapacitors because of their unique properties that aid electrolyte access/ion diffusion to the electrode surface. Herein, a soft-templated synthesis strategy based on an organic-assembly process through the co-assembly of triblock copolymer micelles and phenol-formaldehyde resin in aqueous solution is utilized to prepare nitrogen-doped nanoporous carbons with sheet-like morphology. Further carbonization and activation yield a high-surface-area carbon with significantly improved porosity. The activated nanoporous carbon electrode exhibits a high specific capacitance of 543 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1 with good cycling stability in an aqueous electrolyte.