Salt-assisted pyrolysis of covalent organic frameworks to porous heteroatom-doped carbons for supercapacitive energy storage

Posted by
Dongwan Yan
on 12 09 2020

Supercapacitors have attracted intensive research interest due to their advantages including longer cycling ability and higher power density. Porous heteroatom-doped carbons (PHCs) have been regarded as a class of promising electrode materials for supercapacitors because of their unique porous, electronic and chemical properties. However, synthesis of PHCs with hierarchical mesoporous/microporous structures and ultra-high porosity and electrochemical performance remains a great research challenge. In this research, two oxygen and nitrogen co-doped PHCs (denoted as ONC-T1s) are prepared via a salt-assisted pyrolysis method using covalent organic frameworks (COFs) as the precursor. ONC-T1s show a hierarchical porous structure with an ultra-high specific surface area (up to 3451 m2 g−1). The ONC-T1-850-based supercapacitor exhibits a high specific capacitance of 1711 F g−1 at 1 A g−1, an ultra-fast charge–discharge rate up to 500 A g−1 with a specific capacitance of 856 F g−1, and excellent stability. This work establishes a promising strategy for preparation of PHCs using COFs or other porous organic polymers as precursors and demonstrates the great potential of PHC-based supercapacitors.

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