High nitrogen-containing cotton derived 3D porous carbon frameworks for high-performance supercapacitors

Abstract

Supercapacitors fabricated by 3D porous carbon frameworks, such as graphene- and carbon nanotube (CNT)-based aerogels, have been highly attractive due to their various advantages. However, their high cost along with insufficient yield has inhibited their large-scale applications. Here we have demonstrated a facile and easily scalable approach for large-scale preparing novel 3D nitrogen-containing porous carbon frameworks using ultralow-cost commercial cotton. Electrochemical performance suggests that the optimal nitrogen-containing cotton-derived carbon frameworks with a high nitrogen content (12.1 mol%) along with low surface area 285 m 2 g -1 present high specific capacities of the 308 and 200 F g -1 in KOH electrolyte at current densities of 0.1 and 10 A g -1, respectively, with very limited capacitance loss upon 10,000 cycles in both aqueous and gel electrolytes. Moreover, the electrode exhibits the highest capacitance up to 220 F g -1 at 0.1 A g -1 and excellent flexibility (with negligible capacitance loss under different bending angles) in the polyvinyl alcohol/KOH gel electrolyte. The observed excellent performance competes well with that found in the electrodes of similar 3D frameworks formed by graphene or CNTs. Therefore, the ultralow-cost and simply strategy here demonstrates great potential for scalable producing high-performance carbon-based supercapacitors in the industry.