Double Soft-Template Synthesis of Nitrogen/Sulfur-Codoped Hierarchically Porous Carbon Materials Derived from Protic Ionic Liquid for Supercapacitor

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Aug 9;9(31):26088-26095. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b07877. Epub 2017 Jul 28.

Abstract

Heteroatom-doped hierarchical porous carbon materials derived from the potential precursors and prepared by a facile, effective, and low-pollution strategy have recently been particularly concerned in different research fields. In this study, the interconnected nitrogen/sulfur-codoped hierarchically porous carbon materials have been successfully obtained via one-step carbonization of the self-assembly of [Phne][HSO4] (a protic ionic liquid originated from dilute sulfuric acid and phenothiazine by a straightforward acid-base neutralization) and the double soft-template of OP-10 and F-127. During carbonization process, OP-10 as macroporous template and F-127 as mesoporous template were removed, while [Phne][HSO4] not only could be used as carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur source, but also as a pore forming agent to create micropores. The acquired carbon materials for supercapacitor not only hold a large specific capacitance of 302 F g-1 even at 1.0 A g-1, but also fine rate property with 169 F g-1 at 10 A g-1 and excellent capacitance retention of nearly 100% over 5000 circulations in 6 M KOH electrolyte. Furthermore, carbon materials also present eximious rate performance with 70% in 1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte.

Keywords: double soft-template; hierarchically porous carbon materials; nitrogen/sulfur-codoped; protic ionic liquid; supercapacitor.