Nitrogen and Sulfur Co-Doped Graphene-Like Carbon from Industrial Dye Wastewater for Use as a High-Performance Supercapacitor Electrode

Abstract

Nitrogen and sulfur co-doped graphene-like carbon (N,S-GLC) is successfully prepared in a one-step hydrothermal reaction of glucose with industrial dye wastewater followed by chemical activation. The nitrogen and sulfur are sourced entirely from the industrial wastewater. The process not only provides an alternative way of treating industry wastewater, but also offers a green route for recovering energy from the waste in the form of chemicals. The resultant N,S-GLC shows a good degree of graphitization, a high specific surface area (1734 m2 g−1), and moderate heteroatom doping (N: 2.1 at%, S: 0.7 at%). The N,S-GLC electrode displays high specific capacitance of 275 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1 with a retention of 65.4% at 20 A g−1 in 6 m KOH. Moreover, the assembled symmetrical supercapacitor cell shows a capacitance of 38 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1, which is equivalent to an energy density of 6.4 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 275.0 W kg−1. This approach provides an alternative and sustainable way of fabricating heteroatom-doped graphene-like carbon materials for use in high-performance supercapacitors.